Beating Up Old People and Chasing Girls

The Rum Diaries has what may easily be the greatest opening chapter of any book I have ever read. In that chapter, Paul Kemp, the protagonist, is on board a plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico where he has accepted a job on a local newspaper. In the airport, he spots a beautiful blonde woman and is ecstatic to discover that she will be boarding his flight. Kemp grabs his seat on the plane and saves a seat next to him, hoping to attract the girl. However, to his chagrin, just as the girl is coming to sit next to him, an old man sits down in the seat, resisting Kemp’s efforts to kick him out. Upon landing, however, Kemp sees one more chance to talk to the girl. He will remain in his seat until she walks by his seat, then get out and walk with her. However, the old man again ruins the plan as he impatiently tries to push his way out of the plane. Infuriated, Kemp pins the man against the window, screaming wildly at the “ ‘…crazy old bastard,’ ”(9), attracting the panicked reaction of the co-pilot and stewardess, who break up the fight. None of this gains him any favor with the blonde girl. As Kemp puts it, “Few girls look with favor on a man of my stripe, a brutalizer of old people,”(10).
This is a humorous situation of course, but it is symbolic of a larger struggle which Kemp faces. The old man is a symbol of aging, frustration, and decline, while the woman is a symbol of the fun and glory of youth. At the center of the conflict between these two factors is Kemp’s realization that he is growing old. It saddens him to think of the loss of his youth because he realizes that those years were his prime, and yet at the same time, he feels that they were fruitless and wasted. Reflecting on his lost youth, Kemp laments about, “…wasted hours and frustrated moments and opportunities forever lost because time had eaten so much of [his] life and [he] would never get it back,”(37). The old man on the plane impeding Kemp’s attempts to hook up with the blonde is a symbolic way of saying that the approach of old age impedes men from getting the glory which is associated with youth. And yet, just as Kemp’s squabble with the old man actually revolted the girl, trying to resist the fact of aging only makes it harder to attain happiness.
Another example of Kemp’s insecurity regarding the loss of youth is revealed as he recalls why he left his original hometown of St. Louis, Missouri for New York City. “‘St. Louis Gives Young Men The Fear… [Kemp] doesn’t give a good shit for St. Louis or his friends of his family or anything else…he just wants to find some place where he can breathe,’ ”(60). Even before setting out on his own, Kemp saw that his life was about to be wasted in Missouri, where he could never amount to anything. So he fled the certainty of anonymous death in St. Louis for a faint glimmer of hope that he could attain greatness in New York. It is the same reason Achilles chose to die in a burst of glory instead of living a long, happy, and nameless existence. Yet Kemp is in a more difficult position than Achilles because he does not know if glory awaits him in New York. His flight to the city could result in the same anonymity he faced in Missouri. All Kemp knows is that if he sees hope, he will do all he can to reach it.
Kemp’s fear of aging will likely play a major role in the plot of this novel. It is a trait which pervades his character and reveals itself constantly in his actions. And yet Kemp is not old, but still has a few years of youth. It will be interesting to see if he is able to gain the glory he has always desired.