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Mylov’ Browne

Professor Rodrick

English 115

15 November 2019

BZ Analysis

From the works of Joan Didion, I will be using her Fiction novel,​ Play It as It Lays​. The

novel takes place in Los Angeles, specifically in Hollywood in the early 1960s. It’s about a

woman named Maria Wyeth, wife of Carter Wyeth, a successful filmmaker in which Maria

starred in his first two films. Carter and Maria have a four-year-old daughter named Kate

together who lives in a mental institution. Maria is a ticking time bomb and everyone in her life

contributes to when and how she will explode. Their lives are filled with fame and fortune as

well as the negative aspects that come with it such as drugs, alcohol, and adultery. Due to

Carter’s movies being a success he’s gone all the time on business which really gets under

Maria’s skin which results in her spiraling, numbing herself with alcohol as well as sleeping with

a good amount of men. Maria then found out that Carter was cheating on her and forced her to

have an abortion with a baby she wanted to keep, which caused her to fall into a deeper

depression. Throughout her whole journey she was accompanied by a friend and business partner

of Carter’s, BZ, husband of Helene, he’s almost as complex as Maria from his identity to his

relationships, as well as his destiny in the “Game” the game of life, Eventually BZ loses himself

and in the end he loses the “Game” as well.

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BZ is a man who craves to feel needed and important and when he doesn’t get his way he

lashes out. Bz’s sexual orientation is gay, though his mother pays his wife Helene to stay married

to him which puts a strain on his identity. I believe him suppressing this part of him in order to

keep his reputation intact, leads him into harsh supplements such as polygamy and BDSM. on

the outside, BZ seems like a very serious man that shouldn’t be messed with, but something’s

eating at him from the inside. BZ is all about having fun especially with party favors, I feel like

he’s willing to do anything to mask how he truly feels inside. The only thing that seems to make

him happy Maria, simply talking to her lights up his day. “BZ and Maria understand each other

as they both admit that they are tired

of pretending that the fake jokes,

faces, and people are funny or nice.”

(website wordpress.com) The way

that he confides in her and found a

genuine interest in her showed

readers that BZ wasn’t just a stone cold man who’s only interested in having sex with as many

women as possible just for the sake of it and this makes BZ so different from the generic man in

the 1960s enhacing his complexity.

From the outside looking in BZ is a great representation of a typical man in Los Angeles

from the 1960s, but surprisingly greater complex than most. BZ is just as complex and hard to

figure out as maria. I see Maria as a strong woman who always seems to be battling with her

identity just like BZ. He struggles with his place in the world, where he simply belongs. His

identity that he kind of has a grasp onto now is barely keeping him grounded to the world and the
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life he always knew as well as his loved ones including Maria. He and Maria both struggle with

relationships either the love is unrequited or there’s no love at all which alters their self worth

and ultimately affects how they view themselves.” Only BZ continues to look directly at her.

"Oh fuck it," she says then, and tears run down her cheeks”. BZ is also Maria’s weakness, thye

both can fully emerge in one another. (Carter’s Scene) Maria and BZ also juxtaposed quite a bit

regarding Bz is usually the one who always has the most control in the relationship and that’s

what Maria always seems to lack in hers. "I can't take this, Helene." --If you can't deal with the

morning, get out of the game. You've been around a long time, you know what it is, it's

play-or-pay.-- Why don't you go tell that to Carlotta, Helene whispered. Maria closed her eyes at

the instant BZ’s hand hit Helene's face. "Stop it," she screamed.” (ch.63 p.5) This shows how BZ

tends to be the one to have the most control by being violent rather than assertive. Either BZ

takes control either physically or mentally either way he has to have it almost owning her. His

massive amount of control is also shown through how he would make Helene try and act like

Maria just for the purpose of his own pleasure which could be seen as a form of abuse. Now he

can flamboyantly identify as a violent person to be frank. BZ’s behavior ties to how he is a

complex character, he can almost be looked at as a victim though from another perspective he’s

just any other assailant in the 1960s.

In the beginning of the novel BZ is a very strong, confident, and powerful individual.

Throughout the novel you can see how he loses himself by not claiming his true identity. He

slowly starts to shift in character when his wife Helene begins having relations with his friend

and Maria’s husband Carter. It seems as if BZ lost control, and felt that Carter had trumped him

at life. First Carter had Maria who is the only person he actually cares about and then Sleeps with
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Helene someone he could claim and not look as pathetic on the outside as he feels on the inside

as well. This changed his perspective on life. He begins to feel so empty that he had come to the

conclusion that life means nothing to him and wasn’t worth living anymore. BZ at all times tells

Maria that she’s still “playing” meaning that even throughout all the hurt and pain Maria’s been

through she’s still playing the game of life with is like a card game, due to the fact that you win

some and you lose some. The real question is why does Maria keep playing the game even

though she seems far closer to the edge than BZ ever seemed. I feel that Helene and BZ’s

relationship is anything but normal. He then tells Helene that she has to either play or pay,

meaning just go through life with him as he wants or he is going to make it very difficult for her

and there’s going to be consequences.

BZ’s character is nowhere close to being a generic man that follows the ordinary

everyday man, he’s so much more than that. BZ not being needed anymore really ruined him, he

decided to kill himself at the end of the novel leaving Maria all on her lonesome, his partner

from the beginning. I feel like Maria was the reason he held on for so long, after all, Maria was

the person he wanted to die with and if not that then to just with her during his last moments.

BZ’s identity is a very big part of him that was taken away, resulting in him hurting internally

without anyone knowing, lastly he decided he was done playing their game of life, he had no

strength left in him in comparison to his very noticeable character trait being strong. Once BZ

seen that Carter could easily take his place, he felt like he lost all power.
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Works Cited

Didion, Joan. Play It As It Lays: A Novel. , 1970. Print.

https://didionplayitasitlays.wordpress.com/summary/​ accessed 11/16/19

Play It As It Lays (1972) - Some Maria & B.Z. Scenes (Image)