Group Participation

I was in group 2, or The Bond Masculine and Feminine. My group discussed how masculinity and femininity play into the roles of characters in James Bond. My part, in particular, was to relate geographic locations to how they give Bond an advantage or disadvantage to the situation he's faced with. To be more exact, I used Venice to show how Bond was able to woo Vesper because of the geographic location. For my media, I passed out pictures of the locations I referred to. For class participation, I asked questions on how the students felt the location helped, or if they had any suggestions for other examples.

James Bond: Man of the Times

It is clear that Ian Fleming, of the hit James Bond novels, uses James Bond in Casino Royale as a symbol for Great Britain's role in the Cold War. Throughout the series, Bond is acting as a response to the then-current issues Great Britain was facing. During the Cold War era, Great Britain's colonial power was slowly depleting as they imployed decolonization throughout the world. James Bond is the sort of power Fleming felt Great Britain needed to get through the hardships of their fleeting economy and power.

There are several instances in the novel Casino Royale that mirror the events of the Cold War. For instance, when Bond originally gambles away his entire fund from London, it seems like the end of the road for the hero. Then into Bond's lap falls an envelope of bail money from Felix in order to continue the game. The envelope reads, "Marshal Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the USA," (Fleming 79). In this case, Felix is Fleming's take on Truman with his Marshall Plan being put into effect, assisting European countries' economic crunch.

In this scene, Le Chiffre, a Soviet entrepreneur, is playing baccarat in order to recover union money he lost. Bond's role is to clean him out and leave SMERSH with no other choice than to assassinate Le Chiffre. This is very clearly a response to the fear of the rising Soviet Union. The Allies role in the Cold War was to rid communisim of the eastern countries, mainly Russia. Yet Fleming creates a scene where Great Britain goes at this task with a sense of coolness and collectedness, using wits as their weapon. In this way, Great Britain doesn't look as if they're "policing" the world as the USA is seen. Instead, they outsmart Russia and leave it up to someone else to finish the dirty work.

In today's world, there is no Soviet Union threatening the power of the rest of the world. Because of this, Ian Fleming would not write the same James Bond he wrote in 1953. The world is currently facing economic instability, so a bailout would most likely still be evident, only it would have to come from someone other than America. James Bond would still keep his suave persona, as Fleming liked to boast of Great Britain's casualness over other nations. The enemy would become a middle eastern terrorist instead of a Russian. That's almost how it plays out in the recent adaptation from Martin Campbell, only he services many of the world's terrorists instead of is one.

Works Cited

Fleming, Ian. Casino Royale. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.