Lost Passion and Eternal Duty: A Marxist Analysis of Anthony Doerr’s “River Run”

by Pete Cuthbertson

When is the opportunity for happiness available in a capitalist society? This is the question that springs to mind when reading Anthony Doerr’s “River Run”. This short story follows a snippet of the character Mulligan’s life in retirement and his struggle with realizing he has set his life up to never satisfy him due to his learned purpose. Mulligan is in a marriage that does not satisfy him, he is unable to find relief in his hobby of fishing, and all this happens while he is caught up in an affair. Mulligan has fallen into a solemn surrender where he believes he can’t change his circumstances and that crestfallen attitude lends itself to the oddest feeling of the mundane. The story opens the question of where it all went wrong for Mulligan, and if this was an inevitable unhappiness? In a capitalistic society where Mulligan has been taught that duty surpasses his independent choices, this is the only outcome. This short story uses Mulligan’s choice to stay with his wife despite his passion living elsewhere to reflect the theme of capitalist duty versus Marxist freedom and how Mulligan’s life could have been happier outside of a capitalist society.

In capitalism, being a so-called freeloader is the greatest insult of them all. If someone can accuse you of taking handouts or not pulling your own weight, there are no cultural qualms in criticizing your actions. This mindset is very different from a Marxist perspective. “Marx believed that people are inherently free, creative beings who have the potential to transform the world. However, the modern, industrial world is beyond our full control.” (Dara) This belief in the natural freedom of people we see stunted in Mulligan’s own life. Even in his retired life he has responsibility towards his wife and the judgment of those around him who assume that his retired life must come with the ability to follow his own peace. He cannot escape these realities and he also can’t admit his unhappiness, because he has reached the goal of every working-class person. Complaining about life in retirement where work is no longer demanded are the actions of a freeloader and therefore the worst. His unhappy marriage and feeling of listlessness are not topics he can bring up with those around him without fear of reprimand or criticism.

Mulligan’s marriage to his wife wasn’t always this complex and unhappy.

Mulligan expresses that his wedding night was happy and fulfilling, much like starting any new prospect, with hope being bountiful and riding a high of possibilities. This is a feeling people can associate with their own beginnings, at work or school or in a relationship. This initial excitement reflects the hopeful start that people have when they enter the workforce in a capitalist society, with the turn of their marriage reflecting the growing resentment people feel towards their capitalist societal expectations. Even as Mulligan finds a passion outside of his marriage, he remains within the unhappy marriage. This affair reflects not just the hobbies and dreams that the working class has and are unable to fulfill due to financial obligation and capitalistic judgement, but also the fear of what could have been if they had taken a different route in life.

His time to change his life may be out of reach now, but we can still wonder if he had not chosen this path if he could have had a happier life. There are many ideas of what would make a happy life, but Mulligan is solely focused on his responsibilities and not the things that make him happiest. He chooses not to go to his affair partner, not to fish, and lives in limbo. He does not allow himself freedom of choice and instead focuses solely on his obligations. When we look at what makes people happy a common theory is value and fulfillment, which categorizes our long-term satisfaction by our independent choice and the resulting external rewards that we receive. “Your actual self is who you are right now, including some dispositions, talents, and biological characteristics that are to some extent innate. Your ideal self is who you would like to be. And your ought self is who you feel a responsibility to be.” (Fabian) The idea of value and fulfillment theory is that we need each of these versions of ourselves to be honored to some degree. We must accept our actual self, strive to be our ideal self, and acknowledge our ought self to reach fulfillment. Mulligan is currently living off the idea of the ought self to be the most important because that is what capitalism teaches us. While following our ought self can give us external rewards Mulligan is losing all internal motivation and happiness by reaping those rewards of retirement and the ability to indulge in his hobbies and the supposed leisure of an unemployed life. Mulligan must shift his lifestyle to reflect the needs of his actual self and ideal self.

If Mulligan were born into a society that did not prioritize efficiency and capital over individual freedom, he could have been happier. His choice to stay in an unhappy marriage is based on the fear of criticism and the demand of duty that he can’t escape even in retirement. One of the saddest quotes of the story comes from the letter he receives from his mistress, where in postscript she asks if he were to be married to her instead of his wife and told her he was going fishing, would he actually go fishing, or would he go out and have an affair with another woman as he does now? If he were to change the person he was with, would his actions change to accommodate them? While the marriage itself would change, the circumstances he is in would remain the same. He would still be in the rigid confines of a duty-based capitalist society. Mulligan’s marriage being stagnant is not a sign of failure by his spouse, but a representation of how capitalism solidifies our life when opportunity should be ever present.

The conundrum of being under the false belief of a better option is a concern many people face when making the choices in their own life, even the author Anthony Doerr. Doerr expresses the idea of the grass being greener in other works of his, and he explains the complication with that in an interview with the Arbiter. “That is something human. It’s very Western anyway. This idea … is drilled into you and me from the time we’re born by ads, in particular.” (Arbiter) Doerr understands that the idea of better options always being out there is a societal fear pushed by capitalist advertisement. This fear of better options being pushed by culture only has power because the people being influenced believe that those paths are closed off to them. Mulligan partaking in an extramarital affair is part of those grass is greener beliefs, where the actual issue is not who he is with but the virtues being set on him. If he were to be raised outside of those beliefs and instead was taught that opportunity remains and that there doesn’t need to be hard decisions, he could be happy in either potential marriage. He is stuck in a capitalist mindset when the freedom of a Marxist one could bring him the satisfaction of knowing that nothing is closed off to him.

Marriage in never perfect, but the finality of Mulligans decisions and the stern sense of duty imbued by a capitalist society only heightens his unhappiness. His marriage feels like an inescapable weight, just like the financial toil of employment feels for the working class in capitalism. The choice to show how his marriage reflects that struggle and the discontent that loss of opportunity experience is a purposeful theme in the story and stands to show that the grass isn’t necessarily greener. For Mulligan to be happy in a marriage he must feel that he is not missing out on another options. The answer to this is not to have an affair and remain in this stagnant duty, but to expand his understanding of life and break free from those capitalistic virtues and ought self. Though he can’t change the people around him or government overnight, he could take those first steps in dissecting why he feels the way he does and take on the Marxist beliefs of freedom and independent self.

Works Cited

Dara. “Marxism and Universal Happiness –Can It Ever Be Achieved?” Issuu, from Plato & Co – Happiness & Knowledge by North London Collegiate School, 2 Feb. 2023, issuu.com/nlcs1850/docs/plato_co_-_happiness_and_knowledge/s/18559126.

Doerr, Anthony. “River Run.” Sewanee Review, vol. 109, no. 3, Summer 2001, p. 321. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=6949119&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Fabian, Mark. “A psychological-enriched version of Tiberius’ value-fulfillment theory of Wellbeing.” Philosophical Psychology, vol. 35, no. 6, 5 Jan. 2022, pp. 862–886, https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2021.2016678.

Gee, Julianne. “Author Anthony Doerr Speaks on His Writing Process, Recent Novels.” The Arbiter, 18 Apr. 2022, arbiteronline.com/2022/04/18/author-anthony-doerr-speaks-on-his-writing-process-recent-novels/.