Passive Prostitute? True Lover! - Reversal Character Couldn’t Separate From the Novel – Review about Joe Hill's Horns

University of Iowa

Yongsoo Gweon

As one of the kids who was born in the 1990s, when I was asked the question “What novels do you think of when you hear the ‘fictional genre’?” this reminds me of the Harry Potter series. Like many fictional novels do, many stories in the Harry Potter series usually deal with the conflict between the character who is honest and gives positive effects– like Harry Potter, Dumbledore and Gryffindor friends – and the character who is greedy and gives negative effects-like Voldemort, Malfoy and Slytherin-. J.K. Rowling manages this main conflict well with building continued tension, which helped readers to concentrate on the events in the novel. However, the element that helped the Harry Potter series to be considered as a masterpiece is its dramatic turn of events. For example, when the novel starts, Professor Severus Snape was considered as a villain throughout the whole series of Harry Potter. However, as the series continues, it is revealed that the reason why he hates Harry is that Harry’s father bullied him a lot in school, and finally, in the last book of the series, readers could discover that he was the real helper of Harry Potter who sacrificed himself for helping Harry to get rid of Voldemort.

Even though Snape is the super extreme example, many writers install intended settings to create biased views of a specific character, then reverse these settings to create emotion, fun and even sympathy for this character. This reversal has a similar level of impact as the main conflict did in the novel. Joe Hill, as many writers do so, consciously confers negative prejudice on Glenna, and flips it gradually to create sympathy for her. Intended prejudice is made by presenting her first, then giving cheap images from past scenes. These images are later contradicted by Glenna’s voice message to Ig, Ig’s self-examination, and Glenna’s saying to Ig. Ultimately, reversed image that was developed by the above factors is solidified by Ig’s spell on Glenna, and leave a message ‘love yourself’ to not only Glenna, but also to the readers, which helps to expand from sympathy for Glenna to sympathy on ourselves.

The most important depiction about Glenna was the first chapter because it sets biased views on Glenna. When Horns begins, the story starts from the hangover scene of Ig Parrish. Even though the effect of Ig’s horns on other people become more evident as time goes, nobody knows the ability of the Ig’s Horn on others – that makes people confess about their inner sins – in the first chapter, except readers who had the ending spoiled by others. In this circumstance, this is not just a coincidence that an author picks Glenna as a first person who was affected by the Horn’s ability. It can be said it is meant to create a lot of prejudice on Glenna. As a reader’s situation reading the book from Ig’s perspective, the writer’s depiction towards Glenna doesn’t only discomfort, but also even disgusts. In the first chapter of Horns, Glenna said to Ig “I’d like to eat the whole box, and just want to stick my face in and start eating” then she

“began to eat, shoving in one chunk after another without swallowing. Soon, the whole doughnut was in her mouth, filling her cheeks. She gagged softly, then inhaled deeply through her nostrils……when she was done, she took a few panting, uneven breaths, then looked over her shoulder, eyeing him anxiously (p. 8).”

This passage shows directly how Glenna was depicted as a gross woman who devoured doughnut in her mouth by the author. Since this scene is the first depiction of the Glenna, readers just accept her as a paranoiac girl who is obsessed with food, not as a poor girl who was captured by horns’ abilities and acted weirdly.

Furthermore, Glenna’s clouded condition and confession about her shameful behavior with Lee and Ig’s response to these helped to reinforce a negative impression of Glenna, and eventually readers get low expectations of her. Without any shame or awkwardness, she just keeps saying that she wants to say something disgusting –that Glenna did oral sex to Lee last night— for making Ig feel gross about her and leave her because she “can’t stand waking up next to Ig anymore” (p. 9). Even as she said brutal things to her friend, she “was leaning over the box of doughnuts again, her expression placid, as if she just told him a fact of no particular consequence: that they were out of milk or had lost the hot water again” (p. 10). It is common sense that normal people don’t do oral sex in front of a bar. Moreover, Glenna’s confession in front of Ig without any hesitation or emotion and eating doughnuts again gives sufficient amount of shock to readers. Even prostitutes do not work in the public place. As mentioned earlier, since readers did not know that her confession is due to the horns’ abilities, readers are not as likely to wipe out ‘more than a whore’ image on her. This leads people to stick with negative views on Glenna.

Even after readers acknowledge that Glenna’s confession was due to the horns’ abilities, the passive and bumbling description of Glenna in past scenes consolidates negative looks on her. In every situation that was happening in the old foundry, she did not affect anything in front of a gang who sexually insulted her and Lee, and failed to persuade Lee to show his masculinity in front of a gang. When the gang said “Glenna, Lee’s got a bigger pussy than you”, Glenna just got hurt and her response “Fuck you” didn’t help her at all, and her shouting for cheering Lee up just ‘fist in the air’ (p. 68). Her passive behavior with weak presence in that circumstance helps readers to assume that she was passive, weak, and was ignored by others in the past. What is more, unlike Glenna’s thoughts on the relationship between Lee and her as “used to have a thing going, back in a high school” (p. 9), Lee’s thoughts on her is no more than a contract. When Ig asked “has she been your girlfriend for a long time?” Lee answered, “We are not a boyfriend-girlfriend thing. She just comes over now and then talk about boys and the people who are mean to her at school and stuff… the times she whacked me off were kind of a favor she did. It’s a good thing, too” (p. 92). This directly shows that Lee did not consider her as a girlfriend, but as a sexual outlet, and Glenna’s impulsive behavior is not only a recent thing, but also happened in the past. Even though Glenna was young at that time, her behavior is no different to a prostitute and in Lee’s situation, there is no reason for refusing it. This is directly revealed by Lee’s saying “What a fucking slut, huh?” (P. 114), and Ig’s agreement on that, which led readers to think ‘Glenna equals prostitute’.

However, the reversal starts when Ig checks Glenna’s voice message in the old foundry in the Chapter 24. After Ig meets the herd of the snake at the old foundry, there are many voice messages coming from his families, and Glenna. However, the contents of a message and its response from Ig are quite different. Messages from families just contain grandma’s hospitalization and their blackout. Additionally, Ig’s response towards these messages is full of sarcasm. For example, when Ig heard the “I love you” from his mom, he laughed at that, with thinking, “The things people said. The effortless way they lied to others, to themselves” (p. 175). His laugh connotatively showed Ig’s scornful and disgusted emotions towards many people’s duplicity, which makes him tired. However, Glenna’s message is quite different to others. She said

“You’re the nicest guy in the world, Ig. But I think deep down you’ve always been sort of ashamed to be with me after all those years with her…. I’m all mistakes and bad habits…… For what it’s worth, I don’t think too much of me either. I’m worrying about you, bud. Take care of your grandma. And yourself.” (P. 175)

Compared to other messages, this message from Glenna is not only quantitatively long –three times longer than others– but also filled with concerns on Ig and reproach herself. Even though she didn’t do any wrong, she didn’t have confidence in herself, but just kept blaming herself for everything with worrying about his situation. Her dedicated but weak presence appeared in the voice message, and this induced readers who were filled with the negative views of Glenna to think that she is poor.

What is more, Even though Ig knew that all people’s confessions or horrible thoughts are due to the horn’s ability, Ig’s judgment on Glenna’s message is quite different to others’. Her message caught Ig

“off guard…He had been prepared to hold her in contempt, to hate her, but not to remember why he’d liked her. Glenna had been casually free with her apartment and her body, had not held his self-pity and his wretched obsession with a dead girlfriend against him…Glenna was a sweet, shabby mess…she’d been in a half-dozen relationships, all of them bad.” (P. 175-176).

Even though she had told her horrible inner minds to Ig like his families did, he accepted her message with full of sympathy and introspection about his attitude towards Glenna, whereas he evaluated others’ as two faced. This is the intended setting for changing Ig’s negative views to sweeter, and positive images, which ultimately aims to change readers’ views of Glenna. Thanks to this setting, views towards Glenna start to reverse well with emphasizing her pitiful presence.

This appreciative mind towards Glenna and her dedication soon induced Ig to think about what he did for her, which helped to build more sympathy on Glenna. Ig soon realized that he didn’t give anything great to her, nor treated her nicely. He remembered that Glenna “had mentioned to him now and then that they needed new dishes, but Ig hadn’t taken the hint. He tried to remember if he had ever bought Glenna anything nice. The only thing that came to mind was beer” (p. 185). This shows how he was indifferent to her. He enjoyed her body and apartment freely, but he didn’t make her happy at all and didn’t even think about it before. This realization elicited guilt about Glenna. What is more, in spite of Ig’s mistreatment of her, her devotion on Ig was revealed again in own word “ You’d close your eyes and I’d know you were thinking of her, but I wouldn’t care because I could make you feel good and that was all right…you seemed like you’d be happy to sit by me all day. But I hated knowing I’d never matter” (p. 322). This confession shows Glenna is really thirst of being loved by people, so she just put her heart and soul into Ig. This emphasized how dedicated Glenna was to Ig with significant contrast, which reverses the readers’ first impression of Glenna and put more sympathy on her images.

Dramatically, this reversal peaks when Ig sees her entering into the old foundry in chapter 44, which led Ig’s advice and gift for her. After all descriptions about her looks are ended, the author wrote “She had on too much makeup…… It hurt Ig, looking at her and seeing how it was all put together in a kind of desperate plea: Want me, somebody want me” (p. 319). Even though physical description of Glenna was described several times throughout the novel and was always same, Ig’s interpretation of her look is quite sympathetic and even desperate. He found her inner mind yelled at people, for seeking attention, which stimulated reader’s mind and led sympathy for her. Furthermore, this interpretation leads Ig’s advices on her life by using horns’ abilities. By using horns’ abilities, Ig said to Glenna, “You’re people, too. Do something nice for yourself… You got a little revenge… and give yourself a vacation” (p. 323). In this novel, Glenna firstly seemed as a minor character who was nothing more than a street girl. However, Ig’s advice on her helps to build a great amount of sympathy for her because readers acknowledged the fact that all her elements that looks negative at first were due to the lack of self-esteem and love, so building the self-esteem with ‘give less and take more’ will be the best solution. With Glenna’s crying as a response, this represents the author’s ultimate attitudes on Glenna that she is not a bad person nor a prostitute, but a pitiful person who needs affection from others and self-esteem.

Like Snape led Harry Potter fandom to turn their hatred towards him into love through his reversal, changed descriptions on Glenna turned my mind on her into strong affection. Through her, I could see myself. Her looks—tattoos or clothes—helped her to look strong superficially, and her behavior helped others to consider her as a whore, but what she really wants from this looks and behavior is a true love and concerns from others, which I could sympathize with her. Like her, I always care about my physical looks for getting positive images from others, not for myself and I always feel the thirst of getting great amount of attention. So when I read her “desperate plea: Want me, somebody want me”, it felt like my mind was also screaming to others, and when Ig ordered Glenna by using horns’ abilities that “Do something nice for yourself”, this convinced me that Joe Hill presents this message to the readers including me through Ig’s voice. Perhaps, the real message of this novel that was hidden by Joe Hill is not the conflict between the good and evil that is revealed to the eye, but Ig’s cry that we should concern more about loving ourselves.