United States Bicentennial

The United States Bicentennial gives the murder of The crapulent major the setting of a national birthday party. As fireworks and patriotic broadcasts celebrate the country, the unnamed narrator and Bon carry out a killing; the contrast makes the anniversary’s public confidence inseparable from private violence and the narrator’s guilt.

A Birthday in the Background

The killing takes place on the evening of a national celebration. The unnamed narrator and Bon wait near a gas station in UCLA sweatshirts and caps, with stolen license plates on their car and the legitimate plates hidden in the glove compartment. Their disguise and preparations make the anniversary more than a date on the calendar: it is the setting in which they hope to pass unnoticed.

The surrounding noise is a mixture of organized spectacle and unsanctioned celebration. From the car, they hear distant explosions from the city’s fireworks show, occasional small-arms fire, and neighborhood cherry bombs and Chinese firecrackers. The sounds mark a nation celebrating independence, but they also provide an acoustic backdrop to an operation whose purpose is to kill.

Celebration and the Killing

As they wait, Bon recalls a Bouncing Betty mine exploding near Sa Dec. The point man survived but lost his testicles, a memory that leaves Bon tense and unwilling to turn on the radio. The anniversary’s bangs therefore carry a private wartime association as well as a festive one. The narrator can offer little comfort; before the killing, he says that he does not want The crapulent major to feel anything.

After the murder, the two men return home in silence. The unnamed narrator sees blood on the white toes of his sneakers and wipes it away before phoning the General to report that the job is done. Bon empties the dead man’s wallet onto the coffee table: among its contents are a wedding photograph, a photograph of his infant twins, and twenty-two dollars. The narrator tells Bon to burn the photographs, while planning to dispose of the wallet and other evidence later. These domestic traces of the dead man sharply interrupt the clean, practical language of the operation.

The Anniversary Afterward

The men drink rye while watching television specials celebrating the United States Bicentennial. The broadcast presents the country as recovered from recent foreign excursions and ready to resume its strength. Against that confident national image, the two men have just killed a man and are trying to manage the evidence and the immediate aftermath. The celebration continues on screen without acknowledging their act.

The unnamed narrator’s unease outlasts the evening’s public festivities. After eating three oranges and going to bed, he finds that closing his eyes does not banish the image of The crapulent major’s third eye, which seems to weep at what it sees in him. The Bicentennial thus frames more than the act itself: its patriotic spectacle becomes the setting for a private reckoning that the narrator cannot turn off.