Analysis of Primary Colors
Politics is a bloodsport, one big game of corruption, muckraking, prostitution, and defilement, which is played by the politicians, the media, and the seemingly innocent public that tends to forget that politicians are humans also, no better than the masses except for one thing, the ability to play the game. Primary Colors by Anonymous portrays this fraudulent game perfectly, exhibiting all of the dark aspects of a political campaign: from the vicious media in their pursuit of scandals, to the traitorousness of opposing candidates to destroy each other, all the way to the secretive sexual interactions taking place during the campaigning process. Yet in this vice-corrupted novel, Anonymous also manages to let the human side of the tainted politicians shine through, showing that they are imperfect, that they have flaws and weaknesses, and that they make mistakes in exactly the same fashion as all other human beings do. It is with these decadent political figures, Jack Stanton and Freddy Picker, that Anonymous in Primary Colors shows that there is still a nobleness to politics, a dedication to the voters, a love of the political game, and a human compassion in all of it. It is important to mention the definition of noble in order to avoid misunderstanding the word, for according to the Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia, the definition of noble is "stately and imposing; of magnanimous nature," and referring to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, noble means "characterized by or indicative of virtue or magnanimity; high minded; imposing of appearance; grand; impressive" (475). Both definitions of the word noble imply that a person can have a noble appearance and that a person's main objectives and actions are noble, but one should keep in mind that even noble people are not perfect people. This is especially true with the characters of Jack Stanton and Freddy Picker. Jack Stanton's appearance, especially when he is presenting himself to the public, doing what he