Benjamin: on Eber's Imbalance

In George Saunders' Tenth of December, short story 'Tenth of December' shines a new light on Jessica Benjamin theory of Subjectivity and Power. Benjamin writes that if one is to reach "mutual recognition"--the idealistic state of equality among humans-- one must see the other as a full human being, ripe with desires, dreams, flaws, and the peculiarities that make one distinctively human. In essence, one must recognize others as subjects (we're all in the same boat). Once one recognizes the other's subjectivity, domination becomes a bleak prospect.

'Tenth of December' is a story of a Eber, a terminally ill man who ventures out into ten-degree wilderness to spare his wife and children from the pain of caring for him. Robin, a young boy, is wandering the same path Eber takes, imagining that his attractive classmate has been abducted by the 'Nethers' and he is on a quest to save her. Their fates are intertwined from the beginning. Robin spots Eber climbing through icy snow and ventures across a frozen pond to help the poor man. While Eber dreamily awaits for hypothermia to set in and liberate him from the pain and guilt that torment his every though, Robin falls through the ice. Suddenly Eber is torn into the present, and throws himself down the icy hill towards Robin. The two are badly hurt but Robin is able to move, and with a rush of adrenaline sprints home. Having given Robin his clothes, Eber lays on the bank of the pond unable to move, tinting blue from hypothermia when Robin's mother returns. She drags him to her home and nurses Robin and Eber until Eber's wife Molly arrives.

When Eber is on the icy slope, counting minutes, waiting for numbness to overtake his limbs, he takes refuge in the knowledge that "Then it would be done. He would have prevented all future debasement. All his fears about the coming months would be mute. Moot." Eber's inability to internalize his condition as part of himself, and accept himself as an equal could stem from his childhood. His stepfather was also terminally ill and although he seemed to be at peace with himself, Eber recognized the agony with which he performed even the simplest of tasks. By a somewhat Freudian analysis of Eber's psyche, I'm led to think he looks down on his own condition in the same manner in which he recognized his stepfather's condition as pitiful. 

Jessica Benjamin's theory of Subjectivity states that one will either recognize their own subjectivity, or willingly submit themselves to a loving authority in hope of fulfillment or the order that comes with hierarchy. Eber recognizes himself as a subject, yet knows he's at times an object in his family's eyes-- a gross chore that eats up their time and livelihood with his unconscious outbursts of rage. He remembers "MollyTommyJodi huddling in the kitchen filled with pity/loathing. MollyTommyJodi recoiling at something cruel he's said". The disease Eber can't control, controls his status. He sees himself as a subject, but recognizes that in the eyes of his family, he is an object. He knows they will go to great lengths to care for him, yet have ceased to see him as their father-- a subject with authority. When a subject is reduced to object in the eyes of others, yet remains a subject in his own eyes, life in intolerable. Once Eber understands the imbalance, he sees no other way out but to free Molly and the children from the burden of his mercurial company and tedious care.