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Marilyn Monroe

Carolyn Ray is founder and director of Enlightenment and a PhD philosopher specializing in objectivism. "Pollyanna" was first posted on Dr. Ray's Dictionary Forum, and is posted here with her permission.

Maybe it's just my Objecti-Radar (TM), but heroism isn't the only idea that takes a beating in our culture. I hear the term 'optimist' used with disdain, even though the word 'pessimist' also seems to have repugnant connotations for many people. The word 'optimist' comes up because it occurs in my Random House definition of 'Pollyanna'. I'm rather new to Pollyanna, the central character of the classic book and movie. I guess I saw the movie about 4 years ago, and I was immediately taken with Pollyanna. Whenever I hear people use the name, however, I am confused. Normal people use the phrase 'a Pollyanna' to disparage a person for being unrealistic, and I've heard Objectivists use it to mean sort of the equivalent of 'evader'. I just saw the movie again, and I must disagree with this interpretation.

I'm willing to grant that the movie may have distorted the book's intent beyond recognition; I haven't read the book. But given the character's portrayal in the movie, I want to suggest another definition, and I think Objectivists in particular can find value in Pollyanna as a hero, and strength in her habits of thought.

Here's how my dictionary defines the word:

Pollyanna:  an excessively or blindly optimistic person.

So, even if it's OK to be optimistic (which my dictionary indicates means tending to look on the bright side and tending to believe that virtue will triumph over evil), to be blindly or excessively so means to be so without justification, or even to be so in light of evidence to the contrary. One of my darker friends once lit into me for being a Pollyanna, by which he meant that I am so unrealistic that in order for me to make it through my day without going insane, I have to make up nice fantasies and ignore the very ugly facts with which more intelligent, realistic, and well-adjusted persons such as himself concern themselves. I will leave aside whether his assessment of my mental state and his is accurate; I'm more interested here in providing evidence that people use this word to mean rather terrible things. I'd like to know why the term has taken on such meaning.

On my interpretation Pollyanna is realistic. She's learned that if you look for the good in people, you will usually find it; being realistic requires assessing the world objectively, and it would be unrealistic to suppose that most people are purely bad. She's also learned that there's something good about any given set of circumstances; certainly it would be unrealistic to think that most states of affairs don't have anything about them that can be seen as good, even if any particular one is causing one great pain. Her own life is a pretty hard one; daughter of an impoverished missionary in India, she is orphaned and sent to live with an aunt she's never met, among a bunch of unhappy, bitter people who resent her ability to survive and have fun, and criticize her for it.

Pollyanna practices her theory, and makes herself feel better about bad things at the same time, by playing The Glad Game. This is a game that one can play whenever events are particularly distressing. You simply try to think of something in the event that you can be glad about. You can play it alone or with a friend, and make it a contest to see who can think of something first, or who can come up with more things to be glad about.

As far as I can tell, one need not be blind, evasive, or unrealistic to see things this way. After all, value is objective, not intrinsic. What better way to express this, than by finding values wherever one can, even if it takes some extra effort to do so?

So here's my proposed definition, intended to take back the realism, heroism, and perfectly appropriate optimism and objectivity of value encapsulated in this beautiful story:

POLLYANNA: a person who consciously puts into practice the theory of objective value--or, in layperson's terms, a person who looks for the good in everyone and everything, and usually manages to find it.

Happy New Year!

Carolyn
30 Dec 2000
 

P.S. Do yourself a favor and rent the movie. It is full of good Objectivist values besides this one. Pollyanna is an entrepreneur. She's adventurous and energetic, and considers herself capable of dealing with any challenge.  The town is proud and hard-working, and although a rich heiress generally supplies funding for many of the public projects out of a sense of duty and superiority, the people would much rather have a bazaar and sell things to raise money, which they do. I wonder if Objectivists sometimes miss out on movies like this, that speak to our values, because of the unjust portrayal of them by the more cynical, bleeding-heart liberal mainstream critics who undoubtedly see strong, self-sufficient characters like Pollyanna and the townspeople as a threat to their claims about the plight of humanity and the duty of rich people to give away their money. Since the girl's very name is considered an insult to practical, right-thinking people, this film is an easy one to miss.