Heaven Isn't Soooo Far Awaaaay....A discussion of Stacey/Fannon and Far From Heaven

by Keith Garcia

The movie “Far From Heaven” focuses on two main characters, Kathy who is the model white wife of the neighborhood and Raymond who is a successful black man in a time where race was an issue. Both of these characters break racial barriers by communicating with one another. They also overcome other obstacles through out the movie.

In Frantz Fanon’s article “The Fact of Blackness” he talks about what it’s like to be black in the white man’s world. He mention’s that in order for a black man to be black he must be black in relation to the white man. What he means by this is that the black man isn’t just considered a “man” without having black attached to it, compared to a white man who other wise would be known as “that man over there.”

What relation does Fanon’s article have with the film? The character Raymond in the movie is a well educated and very articulate black man living in the 1950’s. When he is first introduced in the film, Kathy sees him outside her window and is startled by the fact there is a man outside in her garden. Instead of seeing him as just a man looking around he was viewed as a threat to her home. Her reaction to his presence was of high alert. Fanon talks about how his skin color has put people on alert just how Raymond’s did with Kathy. As the movie progresses other white people view Raymond’s skin color as a spectacle and not just him as a person.

Even though Kathy is startled by him in the garden she learned to know him as a man instead of just a black man. A scene where Kathy and Raymond are discussing art in art gallery shows their interaction as just two people but the white’s in the gallery look at him as if he were some sort of animal, not sophisticated enough to be in their presence. Fanon speaks of a time when he was viewed in the same manner by a child saying “Look, a Negro!” “Mama, see the Negro! I’m Frightened!” He then goes on to say all he wanted was to be a man among other men just how Raymond in the movie wanted to be viewed.

Kathy’s interest in Raymond quickly turns into desire through the movie as she gets to know him on a personal level. Jackie Stacey talks about fascination and desire in the article “Desperately Seeking Difference.” Stacey also explains how women face the opposition of femininity and masculinity and how a woman is to take on both roles through desire and identification. So in what way do we see this in the film?
Kathy’s husband, ol’ washboard abs (Dennis Quaid), battles his sexuality and in the end leaves his family for a man. At this point Kathy fills in for his absence being both mother and father to the children. This also gave her time to understand what Raymond was about and she desired to learn more about him.

Ultimately her desire forced him to move from the city and give up the floral shop because the white people did not like their association with each other. Their friendship could not be sustained because of the color of his skin. “I progress by crawling. And already I am being dissected under white eyes, the only realy eyes. I am fixed….they objectively cut away slices of my reality” (420).