Oil! was published in 1927. It’s a novel about a family in the oil industry in California, and about themes of capitalism v. socialism v. communism. The story explores how capitalism can pinch the poor as they work long hours and struggle to get by, while a small group of ultrawealthy people control industry and government. I enjoyed the exploration of these themes through fictional characters. Bunny, the main character, is the son of an oilman who started off as a working man and rose to become the head of his own ever-growing oil company.
Bunny’s dad (J. Arnold Ross Sr.) is very salt of the earth and likable for the first part of the book – he is clearly a hard worker and he wants to teach his son to be the same, to really understand how to take responsibility for himself and the business. I felt disappointed in Bunny’s dad later in the book though, he seemed to fade quickly as a character and just became subsumed by what other big business owners wanted (to pursue government corruption, etc.). I think my disappointment in Ross Sr. can be attributed to the overall nature of the book — the characters are used as caricatures of a type of person, and Ross Sr. seems to represent the type of person who “makes it”, crossing over from working poor to rich and abandoning his fellow workers in the process.
I like being able to relate to and root for a character, and to me Bunny was relatable. He is a caring young person who wants to make the world a better place while trying to navigate his own place in society. In particular, it was interesting to see how Sinclair portrayed Bunny’s relationships with rich and powerful individuals, ranging from more shallow characters (fellow college students, movie stars) to the titans of industry who are shaping government. Bunny was admirably dissatisfied with just accepting wealth and a life of ease – he wanted to think about how the system works and be a part of changing it for the better.
Random thoughts:
- The women characters felt stronger at certain points in the book, but by the end I felt frustrated that all of their actions and thoughts seemed to be described in terms of how they related to a man – Bunny. Maybe that’s just because he was the main character. But also many of the women characters were quite shallow — they were happy to be rich and enjoy life, and were disinterested in making the world better for others. And the women who were more interesting – Rachel and Ruth – were both Bunny’s romantic interests.
- I felt like the dynamic between Bunny and Paul always felt strained to me. Paul seemed weirdly paternalistic towards Bunny even though he wasn’t that much older.
