Iustin Sfariac Literatura Americana

MINISTERUL EDUCAŢIEI CERCETĂRII TINERETULUI ŞI SPORTULUIStr. N. Iorga nr. 1, Tîrgu Mureş - 540088, ROMÂNIA ©Universitatea “Petru Maior” din Tîrgu Mureş 2010 Reproducerea conţinutului acestei publicaţii, integrală sau parţială, în forma originală sau modificată, precum şi stocarea într-un sistem de regăsire sau transmitere sub orice formă şi prin orice mijloace sunt interzise fără autorizarea scrisă a autorului şi a Universităţii „Petru Maior” din Tîrgu Mureş. Utilizarea conţinutului acestei publicaţii, cu titlu explicativ sau justificativ, în articole, studii, cărţi este autorizată numai cu indicarea clară şi precisă a sursei. Chapter 1: American Realism: 1865-1890 CRITICS AND LITERARY historians of all persuasions have found that such broad descriptive terms as classicism, romanticism, and realism are valuable and necessary despite their multiple meanings. To describe a writer, work, theme, or genre as classic, romantic, or realistic is to employ a useful frame of reference whence further examination and discussion may proceed. What is required, of course, is some general agreement on the frame of reference, and for the past several decades there have been frequent attempts to sharpen our awareness of the full implications of the terms classicism and romanticism. Realism, as a more recent, seemingly less complicated literary mode, has had less such attention devoted to it. Indeed, George J. Becker's essay in Modern Language Quarterly several decades ago has been one of the few notable attempts to define realism. 1 Becker, basing his definition upon European and American fiction since approximately 1870, listed three criteria of the realistic mode. The first is verisimilitude of detail derived from observation and documentation. The second is an effort to ap proach the norm of experience--that is, a reliance upon the representative rather than the exceptional in plot, setting, and character. The last is an objective, so far as an artist can achieve objectivity, rather than a subjective or idealistic view of human nature and experience. 2 It would be difficult to quarrel with Becker's definition, given the wide range of his survey. His definition clearly requires modification, however, if it is to be applicable within narrower national and chronological limits, and such a modification is particularly important in American literary history, where realism is used to characterize an entire age. What I propose to do, then, is to use Becker's criteria of verisimilitude, representativeness, and objectivity as a means of approaching a definition of realism as it actually functioned in the late nineteenth-century American novel. My belief is that late nineteenth- century American realism varies from Becker's definition in two important ways. First, it achieves a greater diversity in subject matter than is suggested by the criterion of the representative. Secondly, it is essentially subjective and idealistic in its view of human nature and 1 experience--that is, it is ethically idealistic. Three texts will illustrate my thesis: William Dean Howells's The Rise of Silas Lapham ( 1885), Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1884), and Henry James's What Maisie Knew ( 1897). I realize, of course, that earlier or later works by these novelists may or may not support my belief, and that works by other contemporaneous authors may contradict it as well. I am also aware that the realism of the nineties was in many respects less optimistic than that of the seventies. But the three works chosen are characteristic and well-known novels by the three leading realists of the period, and a generalization drawn from them need not be universally applicable to have implications for the period as a whole. The three works are novels of manners in the sense that each focuses on the relationship of its central character to a particular social world. Each introduces a moral tension or conflict between the protagonist and his milieu. The Rise of Silas Lapham centers on the individual's relation to the business world; Huck Finn on his relation to the world of formalized codes of social belief and behavior; What Maisie Knew to the world of extramarital sexual intrigue. The Rise of Silas Lapham clearly fulfills the initial two criteria of Becker's definition. Indeed, it is offered as a prime example of realistic fiction by Gordon Haight in his essay on Howells in the Literary History of the United States and by M. H. Abrams in his definition of realism in A Glossary of Literary Terms. The world of Silas Lapham is that of commonplace late nineteenth- century Boston. Here is no Ahab pursuing his whale with monomaniacal frenzy, no Leatherstocking matching wits and skill with red or white foes in the forest, no Chillingworth brewing potions, but Lapham going down to business each day, taking pride in his family, his trotter, his success in the world. That world, however, is not free from evil, and the moral drama in which Ahab, Leatherstocking, and Chillingworth played is still on the boards. But now, in everyday Boston, evil is more commonplace, is more that which we are accustomed to in our everyday affairs, is more realistic, if you will. It is the falsifications of Silas's former business partner; it is the willingness of the English agents to defraud their backers; it is Silas's own hardhearted treatment 2 of his partner earlier in their careers. Moreover, evil is now so prevalent that the individual immersed in it is frequently unaware that he is participating in or committing evil. The point of the novel, however, is that Silas, though years of business life have partially atrophied his moral sense, does, at a moment of crisis, realize that a particular action is evil and does have the moral strength to make the correct choice. In his rejection of the opportunity to save his fortune, he rises not only above his earlier moral muteness, but also (and more importantly) above the society around him. He is ultimately morally superior to the business world which is his world. Of course, Howells advocated probability of motive, and Silas's moral values do not appear from nowhere. They are founded in his poor but honest Vermont boyhood and in his wife's conscience. But explaining the source of an action does not make that action probable. Howells's belief in Silas's ability to rise above his world is basically idealistic, since it is a private belief in what should be rather than a depiction of what usually is. While Howells's conception of man and society is not crudely primitivistic, it owes much to a belief in the individual's innate moral sense and in the corrupting effects of the pressures of society. Such a belief does not have to be set in a jungle or forest to be operative. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, like much of Twain's work, is in the local color and tall tale traditions. From both of these Twain derived an emphasis on verisimilitude of detail. In Huck Finn, Twain's introductory note on accents is an indication of his conscious attempt to achieve accurate detail. But though Tom and Huck and Jim may be representative characters, their adventures are picaresque and are unusual rather than commonplace. We sometimes forget that the plot of the novel encompasses a full range of acts of violence, from the ambuscade of the Arabs to the near-lynching of Jim. It is possible, however, to struggle with the idea that the total effect of Huck Finn is realistic despite the extraordinary nature of Huck's adventures. This effect is partially gained by the satiric thrust of the novel, by its constant puncturing of the falsely heroic and the sentimental, by its burlesque of the ex traordinary rather than its literal acceptance of it. In addition, Huck Finn is somewhat like Tom Jones in that the intense 3 verisimilitude of detail in the portrayal of individual incidents and characters dominates the novel and tends to blur the exceptional quality of the incidents themselves. In short, part of Twain's purpose in his use of the extraordinary is to deflate it, and his use of vividly concrete detail helps achieve this end. In any case, though Twain does not completely fulfill the criterion of the representative, he nevertheless in his own way justifies his traditional inclusion among the realists. In Huck Finn, as in The Rise of Silas Lapham, the social world is the embodiment of evil. Twain's world is larger than Howells's, however, and includes many forms of codified and institutionalized behavior and belief. Huck's decision not to inform on Jim (in the chapter "You Can't Pray a Lie") reveals the power of such codes. His resolution, Huck decides, is wrong and will result in his damnation. The irony, of course, is that he is led to this conclusion by what he knows is right-- the code of slavery--although he does what he is instinctively led to do. Like Howells, then, Twainindicated that the world around us is frequently corrupt and false. This belief, which received its most obvious fictional representation in Huck's crisis, is also apparent in several other major incidents in the novel and in its very structure. Tom's romantic code of behavior, the code of the feud, of honor, of the mob, all are shown to lead to tragedy or near-tragedy--to the true damnation of the participant. Huck and Jim, drifting down the Mississippi, seek to evade these codes. As Howells had done, Twain revealed his faith in man's ability to rise above the evil around him and achieve an ethical victory. Huck's moral values, like those of Silas, are effectively anticipated, since he has come to know and to value Jim as a companion in escape and as a human being. But Huck's ability to make the correct moral choice despite the world around him is both more brilliantly ironic and more fundamentally idealistic than Silas's. Silas at least knew what was right and what was wrong. Huck must struggle against a false knowledge of right and wrong, and his correct decision is indicative of Twain's faith in the individual's ability to rise above society even when he is unaware that he is so doing. 4 What Maisie Knew is a psychological novel. James's interest, as he tells in his preface, was not primarily in the story, but rather in its refraction through the intelligence of a child. This technique would both illumine her mind and--because of her youth and freshness of vision--cast an ironic glow over the sordidness of the story. In order to achieve this end, James informs us, verisimilitude required that the child be a female rather than "a rude little boy." In addition, in order for the child to be the major source of moral insight, as well as "ironic center," she would have to be invested with "perceptions easily and almost infinitely quickened" and great "vivacity of intelligence," though not "in a manner too grossly to affront probability." James's intent was to present experience through a consciousness that had the ability to absorb and contemplate experience and ultimately the ability to draw moral deductions from that process. The need for such a consciousness, it is clear, encouraged the choice of an unusual central intelligence, one exceptional in perception and sensitivity, and therefore beyond the range of the representative. Yet though the intelligence itself is unusual, verisimilitude and probability are maintained as guides in the presentation of the refractor, and the total effect is that of psychological realism. In other words, James's practice of the psychological novel inherently encouraged a violation of one of the criteria of realism while at the same time he attempted to achieve the effect of realism. As Twain does in Huck Finn, James juxtaposes a child and an evil world. The various adults who constitute Maisie's world shuttle her among themselves either to vex one another or to provide a screen for illicit relations. By the close of the novel Maisie knows two things. She has a knowledge of the world of adult promiscuity, jealousy, and desire. She has also, however, discovered her moral sense, partially under the guidance of Mrs. Wix, but (as becomes apparent when Mrs. Wix herself almost succumbs at the close) more as a reaction against the world around her. It is as if the irritation of that world had caused her moral sense to emerge and at last to assert itself in her refusal to remain with Sir Claude, whom she loves, under circumstances which she recognizes as both absolutely and pragmatically evil. Maisie, too, then, has risen above the world and has achieved an arduous moral victory. Huck's victory was difficult because it required him to subvert 5 and is a kind of mean in this respect. The three writers gain much of their thematic power from their adherence to this view of experience. Moreover. rather than Howells. The significance of this extension is that Twain and James. dramatize a vision of experience in which individuals achieve that which is still a goal for mankind at large.the dictates of knowledge and conscience. James to the unusual in character. not the rule. Howells. as well as a product of the more masculine side of nineteenth-century American romantic idealism--the side that does not minimize the strength of the forces tending to corrupt the spirit of man while it continues to affirm both the necessary and probable victory of the hu man spirit over these forces. This view of experience is. For although very few twentieth-century novelists have been concerned with the commonplace. But for all three victory can be and is gained. Twain. of course. Maisie's of love. in fact. however. whereas Twain devotes much of his attention to the unusual in incident. indicate the direction American fiction was to take. which fulfills the criterion of realism requiring an objective rather than a subjective or idealistic vision of human nature and experience. have been and still are the exception. It is not a view. Howells alone fulfills this criterion. rather than the way most men act within these contexts. many of our major writers have been occupied with what it is possible to call the horizontal and vertical extensions of realism--that is. and to be damned or to sacrifice wealth and love in the name of principle. Late nineteenth-century American realism was attacked in its own time for unidealized pictures of commonplace life. and James indicate the ideal possibilities of action within particular social contexts. The three writers. Silas's victory required the sacrifice of riches. in short. Rather. Those who are willing to struggle against the general current. in its 6 . and for many years continued to be so characterized. the fiction of external violence and interior monologue. a traditional one of much humanistic art. it was neither unidealized nor--for the most part-commonplace. two of the three writers extend the subject matter of realism beyond the representative. however. Wisconsin. the wheat and stock farms of Iowa ("A Branch-Road. the middle border was specifically the high valleys of western Wisconsin ("Up the Coulé" and "The Return of a Private"). since his years as an 7 . Most of his middle border stories are set in Iowa. To Garland. His biography also suggests the source and location of the three "matters" of his middle border fictional world. 1860. But Garland himself was dissatisfied with farming as a way of life. and the plains of Dakota ("Among the Corn-Rows"). Indiana. in its ethical idealism and in its exploration of richly diverse experience-it achieved both its vitality and its promise of future growth.) Garland's graduation in 1881 coincided with his father's decision to resettle his family on new land in South Dakota. This recital of the bare facts of Garland's youth casts considerable light on the subject matter of Main-Travelled Roads. Garland's experiences as a farm boy are the source of his intimate knowledge of the details of farm life and of his awareness that the seasonal cycle of planting and harvest is the principal reality of a farm existence. From 1876 to 1881 he worked on the family farm from spring to fall and attended the Cedar Valley Seminary in Osage during the winter. ("Seminary" was a western name for any school offering advanced education. Settled primarily in the two decades following the Civil War. Hamlin Garland's 1891 Main-Travelled Roads: Local Color as Art HAMLIN GARLAND WAS born in a narrow upland valley (a "coolly") near West Salem. His father was a farmer. carpenter. Instead of joining his family.variation from these two criteria of a conventional definition of realism--that is. near Osage. he sold his Dakota claim and moved to Boston in order to prepare himself for a career as a teacher of literature. the middle border was the area between the older states of the Northwest Territory ( Ohio. Illinois) and the last frontier of the Rocky Mountains. In October. and South Dakota land claimant. on September 14." "Under the Lion's Paw." and "Mrs. and Garland spent his youth as a farm boy in western Wisconsin and in northeastern Iowa. he spent three miscellaneous years in the West as a school teacher. Ripley's Trip"). 1884. he had successfully rebelled against the life of the farm and had escaped to the richer world of the East. Various Bostonians who had cultivated him as an interesting western type found that his personal intensity and wideranging "advanced" ideas were compelling in their own right. and with his Inverness cape and slouch hat he was a striking figure in the subdued Boston literary scene of the late 1880s. from which all culture came. Garland was under the spell of the evolutionary philosophy of Herbert Spencer. particularly with the cities of the East. he succeeded in becoming a lecturer and teacher. he had come to associate the first kind of life with his father and with farming and the second with the city. Garland's early years influenced the stories of MainTravelled Roads in other important ways. Guided by Spencer's belief that all life was an evolutionary progress from the simple to the 8 . His first independent act. therefore. particularly of his overworked and rapidly aging mother. When Garland came to write his early stories of the middle border. but also of his region and its needs.Iowa farm boy and seminarian were the principal sources of his knowledge of western farm and town life. In mid-1886. He became friendly with a large number of minor writers and artists and visited their homes and studios. These two actions were to constitute the emotional center of Garland's personal and literary life for over a decade. he experienced both the backbreaking. then the foremost American literary personage. and his second was to make his way to Boston. On the other. he began to write reviews and articles for the high-toned Boston Evening Transcript. He had grown a Van Dyke beard. On the one hand. and a year later he met and interested William Dean Howells. During his early years in Boston. mind-numbing labor of an unmechanized and understaffed western farm and the world of the mind and spirit which he was encountering at the seminary. In Boston. escape meant desertion--desertion not only of his family. As he came of age in Iowa. After some initial difficulties and hardships. was to leave his father and farming. he discovered that the themes of joyous escape and guilty return were intimately associated with his response to his area. By the time he graduated. Garland soon made a place for himself. During his trip Garland kept a journal in which he recorded his impressions and ideas. "with his simple rusticity and healthful habits. who. no music comes into his life. 9 . and physical comforts of city life. the independent farmer. he found not the happy yeoman but the Iowa farmer. Garland's dismay. He lives apart from his fellows and all the little courtesies and amenities of life are unknown to him. pigs. He had been stimulated by the recent work of such midwestern writers as E. he noted. W. but also his old homes in Iowa and Wisconsin. where his family was farming." was characterized as "the happiest man in the world. that he arranged a trip to the West in the summer of 1887. and his conviction that these conditions were both explainable and remediable. Two recurrent themes appear in these notes-- his dismay at the conditions of western life. dust-filled towns and fly-blown. He would not only visit Ordway. has more to irritate him than any other sort of man on earth. as well as seeing his family. is parched by the wind and burned by the sun. goes without bathing." 1 As Garland travelled west. of course. But by mid. But Garland's shock was also conditioned by his conscious comparison of western life as it was and as it had been traditionally portrayed. however. was in part the product of his years in Boston. It was therefore with the thought of refreshing his memory of western life. The farmer wears dirty and sticky clothing. No beauty. he wrote an ambitious history of American literature.1887 Garland had been away from Iowa and Wisconsin for many years. suffocating farm kitchens were depressingly bleak after the theatres. The calves. Howe and Joseph Kirkland. Despite the labor required of him as a teacher and critic. In conventional novels and poems about farm life. and in part under their influence began a number of middle border short stories and a Dakota novel. He is a pack- horse who never lays down his load. Shabby.complex. South Dakota. concerts. and horses are as perverse as ugly dispositions can make them. he also began to think of himself as an embryonic writer of fiction. " 3 But more often. a paradise for stock-raisers and yet few make use of it. as did George. looking on.' Howard soliloquized. all economic and social deprivation to the evils of land speculation. had an explanation for this condition. The country. There is much open land. he attributed. richly covered with grasses. his choice of detail in the scene just noted--the flies and filth of farmyard milking-- represents a conscious reversal of one of the traditional idyllic images of the pastoral. though splendidly fertile. He commented in his notebook: As one goes west from Charles City [Iowa]. Garland not only found western town and country life inadequate but also. The settlers 10 . The houses are mainly hovels. the settlers passing over it for the purpose of getting the free lands beyond. Occasionally it appears as an awkwardly explicit anti-bucolic statement. But he is also an "outsider" who is aware of the rich life. What part of it as is farmed is but scratched over. and more effectively. as he watched the old man Lewis racing around the filthy yard after one of the young heifers that had kicked over the pail in her agony with the flies and was unwilling to stand still and be eaten alive. the towns are squalid little affairs and the whole land looks as though blighted by some mysterious curse. Garland's double angle of vision unobtrusively colors scene after scene in which he depicts the drudgery and sterility of farm life. therefore. For example. the country changes to a fresher green. the "beauty. This two-fold vision of western life is present in many of the stories of Main-Travelled Roads." which is both unknown and unavailable to the farmer. As he viewed the West. as I have noted.Garland's angle of vision in this passage is initially that of the "insider" who knows the truth about farm life and who therefore implicitly despises the bucolic as a literary convention. And it is--the speculator's curse. and during his Boston years his belief in George's land theories had deepened. Even before coming to Boston he had read Henry George's Progress and Poverty. is but sparsely settled. The enormous productive power of the land is untouched. as in "Up the Coulé": "'The poet who writes of milking the cows does it from the hammock. thin. and thus the only possessor of land would be the user. Garland occasionally introduced George's beliefs directly into his stories. "Under the Lion's Paw. small and dressed illy. as when Grant McLane in "Up the Coulé" comments on the evils of land speculation. No one could afford to own unused land if such a tax system were adopted. The controlling image in this passage is that of a rich. As one looks at the wretched little farms. The other is in the tone of indignation which characterizes his depiction of the hardships and bleakness of western life. the ghastly little towns. No landlord could arbitrarily raise the price of land. here is the very example of the folly of our land system. labor-racked. and the splendid sort of a pleasant country lying waste." This quality was already present in Garland's journal entries of 1887.have a crude. a tone which emerges out of his conviction that these conditions are the product of an unjust land system rather than attributable either to the farmers or to the land. as Butler does in "Under the Lion's Paw. But for the most part his economic theories inform the stories of Main-Travelled Roads in two oblique but important ways. Garland was responding with undisguised anger as he viewed the fear-ridden. he exclaims. For as he made his way west. 11 . They show that they live apart from the centers of thought. The prospect of foreclosure haunts almost all the farmers of Main-Travelled Roads." because there would be no landlords. In his review of Main-Travelled Roads in 1891. " Henry George had argued that land speculation would be impossible if all land in a specific area were taxed as though it were in full use. fertile land lying vacant because it is owned by speculators who are waiting for high prices (and therefore large mortgages) while farmers scratch out a living on less arable but cheaper land farther west. unfulfilled lives of these his own people. rough look. One is in his dramatization of the mortgage as the major source of fear in western life. It is an image which Garland later shaped into the plot and theme of his most well- known story. Howells noted that Garland's style exhibited "a certain harshness and bluntness. Although there has been some confusion about when the stories of Main-Travelled Roads were written. which he spent in the East). His experiments in autobiography and fiction during 1887-88 had given him greater control of his craft than he possessed in late 1887. From the fall of 1888 to early 1890 Garland wrote the best of his short fiction. 1887. 1889. In the summer of 1888 (not 1889. and it was this trip which was the major stimulus for the composition of the stories of Main- Travelled Roads.Travelled Roads but also a number of excellent stories collected in Prairie Folks ( 1893). of righteous anger. "Up the Coulé" and "The Return of a Private" are autobiographical stories. During his journey to the West the following summer. Since he had published two of the stories of Main-Travelled Roads by September. In fact. a successful actor who is visiting his family in the West. including not only the stories of Main. he returned to Boston in the fall of 1888 with an intense awareness of worsening social and family conditions and a fully aroused social conscience.In his autobiography A Son of the Middle Border Garland implied that he returned from his 1887 trip white with anger and immediately dashed off the stories of Main-Travelled Roads. Garland had begun to participate actively in the Henry George movement in November. he again visited the West. he encountered at first hand the hard times which the droughts of 1887 and 1888 had brought to the Mississippi Valley. and his sense of purpose. he later assumed that these and the other stories of the collection must be the product of his trip of 1887. Thus. Garland's mother suffered a paralytic stroke during his visit to the family farm on the parched Dakota prairie. none of which are in Main-Travelled Roads. His belief that he wrote the stories at this time stems from his mistaken recollection that he made a second summer journey to the West in 1889. the second is an account of the return 12 . In addition. was now at fever pitch. The first depicts Garland as Howard McLane. Garland returned to Boston in the fall of 1887 and during the next nine months completed an unpublished Dakota novel and wrote the autobiographical sketches of "Boy Life on the Prairie" and a few short stories. "A Branch-Road" was inspired by Garland's encountering at Osage a worn and haggard farm wife who had been a classmate at the Cedar Valley Seminary. there is little doubt about the specific source of almost every story. a circumstance which suggests the pervasiveness of its situation in western life. For more than two years a Garland article or story appeared in almost every issue of the Arena. In the spring of 1890 Flower accepted Garland's "A Prairie Heroine. and the Century). appeared simultaneously in hard and paper covers in early June. but all were relatively short for a Garland story and only Under the Lion's Paw was openly radical. Garland had great difficulty in publishing his work. found no outlet. 5 Other such stories had parallel fates--rejection by the major journals (the Atlantic Monthly. a radical but widely read Boston monthly which had begun to appear in December. 1891. "Among the CornRows" was drawn in part from Garland's Dakota novel. editor of the Arena. The continuing agricultural depression had led to 13 . "John Boyle's Conclusion. published in 1890). Ripley's Trip" was based on an anecdote told by his mother." a story of the physical and spiritual dissolution of an overworked farm wife which had been rejected by several magazines. The journal suspended several years later without having published the story. but elsewhere it was less favorably received. and four of his published stories. gave the volume a good local press. asked for more like it.of Garland's father from the Civil War. Main-Travelled Roads. acceptance by minor ones. and paid promptly and well. Flower. Harper's Weekly published three of his stories. therefore. or total rejection. Flower suggested that Garland collect some of his stories in a volume to be published by the Arena Publishing Company. "Up the Coulé" and A Branch-Road. Early in 1891. O. Garland chose for the collection his two unpublished novelettes." two of Garland's longest and best stories of this period. Harper's Monthly. Garland's Boston friends. an account so close to the fact that Garland later used most of it unchanged in A Son of the Middle Border. was rejected by several magazines before it was accepted by a minor radical journal. 1889. Garland's second book (his first was the radical play Under the Wheel. It was with considerable joy. Only "Under the Lion's Paw" lacks a specific source." which deals with the suicide of a Dakota farmer. One of his most bitter stories. that Garland discovered B. including Howells. and "Mrs. which had apparently proven too long even for the Arena. a subsidiary enterprise of the Arena. Flower welcomed its bitter tone. and to find myself execrated by nearly every critic as "a bird willing to foul his own nest" was an amazement. and articles for the Arena and similar journals. Editorials and criticisms poured into the office. the poet-editor of the prestigious Century. His radical fiction had been poorly received. ignorant farmers and to condemn both the tone and the farmers. Reviewers in the East therefore tended to associate Garland's intemperate tone with rebellious. he wrote radical stories. The West. he campaigned in Iowa for Populist candidates. Garland's major hope for the achievement of reform in the West. a radical organization which elected several congressmen in 1890. and his most ambitious novel. at West Salem. as they saw it. and in 1892." to have his stories accepted and praised by such figures as Richard Watson Gilder. not in the least like the pictures this eastern author has drawn of it. and both groups 14 . And in 1896 the Populist Party. he had lost much of the personal fervor of his radicalism." The later history of Main-Travelled Roads is in part a history of Garland's literary career. was in the planning stage for the election of 1892. As Garland later recalled. needed affirmation rather than negative and destructive criticism. I had a foolish notion that the literary folk of the west would take a local pride in the color of my work.the formation of the Farmers' Alliance. During the early 1890s Garland led a divided life. attacked the accuracy rather than the tone of Garland's portrayal of farm life. the People's Party (or Populists). By the mid-1890s Garland's career had moved firmly in this second direction. was absorbed into the Democratic Party. But Garland was also anxious to achieve recognition and success as an "artist. however. By mid-1891 a fullscale farmers' party. Statistics were employed to show that pianos and Brussels carpets adorned almost every Iowa farmhouse. Rose of Dutcher's Coolly ( 1895). In 1893 he "rescued" his parents from their Dakota farm and resettled them. had been viciously attacked for its sexual themes. Tilling the prairie soil was declared to be "the noblest vocation in the world. Western reviewers. all written to prove that my pictures of the middle border were utterly false. novels. in retirement. Moreover. He lectured on George's theories. and even his best stories contain inept narrative devices. to discuss them first. as reflected in the Century and its editor. this kind of story was usually set in far-off. and a last in 1930.were defeated by McKinley Republicanism. informative vein from the very beginning of his career. In both stories the action is frozen at the close in a scene of heightened 15 . Garland's weaknesses as a writer of fiction. Grant. Garland permitted time to dull the sharp edge of experience. are readily apparent. All the stories of the 1891 Main-Travelled Roads have major flaws as stories. The impact of Main-Travelled Roads as a coherent and unified vision of western life was therefore weakened in these editions. Garland in his later career chose to destroy the integrity of that edition by including stories written concurrently with those of the first edition but reflecting primarily a nostalgic attitude toward the West. When he returned to fiction in 1898 it was as the author of popular Rocky Mountain romances. and his theme was that of the unusual customs and events of western life of the past. and many readers who have encountered the book only in its later forms have been unable to appreciate either the historical significance or the permanent value of the 1891 collection. In these and similar works. two in 1920. This theme appears only occasionally in the stories of the first edition of Main-Travelled Roads. held to be more "artistic" than the stories of Main-Travelled Roads. Known even in its own time as local color. Throughout his career he had great difficulty with plot. as in his "Boy Life on the Prairie" sketches of 1888. and it made an effort to inform the reader about customs long-gone or unknown. Throughout his radical years of the late 1880s and early 1890s Garland had written a kind of story which critical opinion. For example. a project which occupied him for several years. yet the book as a whole is powerful and evocative and has an aesthetic effect far superior to that of any one story. The endings of "Under the Lion's Paw" and "A Branch-Road" resemble Victorian melodrama. Its tone was either light or nostalgic. He added three such stories in 1899. Early in 1896 Garland undertook to write a biography of Ulysses S. Unfortunately. quaint corners of America. several of the stories of Main-Travelled Roads are marred by melodramatic and sentimental touches. Garland had written of the middle border in a nostalgic. But the motif also appears in the form of the return of the weary traveller from the great adventure of his life in order to take up again the burdens and hardships of daily existence. pursued in the dedication and preface. on fortuitous events as a fictional crutch. the desire of his mother to put down roots. in such works." Finally." Garland was on treacherous ground in the plotting of any long work of fiction and at the close of any short work--two occasions when narrative ability is put to its severest test. And it is of major significance that this move in every story is a return. and Garland's own departures and returns had been the principal sources of tension in the family. Both Garland and his family had experienced the West primarily as movement. Haskins threatening Butler. of departure and return. The road image 16 . "A Branch- Road" and "Up the Coulé" contain a return of this nature. He often relies. for Garland. It is not surprising. In both scenes a child suddenly appears either to add a touch of sentiment or to resolve the tension. as does the lost letter in "Up the Coulé. The road is of course a traditional image of man's journey through life. The most obvious and. therefore. The metaphor is introduced in the title. The West in the late nineteenth century was indeed a main-travelled road. Will's carriage accident in "A Branch-Road" plays this role. a place of constant coming and going. The restlessness of Garland's father. of settling and resettling. and maintained in the epigraphs to each story. as in "The Return of a Private" and "Mrs. Ripley's Trip. but it was a particularly apt image for the West of Garland's time. One way in which Garland achieves these effects is by his road metaphor." characters who have ventured farther west return to older settlements of the middle border because of a flaw or inadequacy in their new world which they hope to correct in the old. Garland's difficulties with the mechanics of plot are particularly evident in his longer fiction.(and overwritten) moral crisis--Will demanding a decision from Agnes. most poignant kind of return is that of the successful figure to the people of his former world whom he had left behind to decay under the conditions of western life. that Garland not only used the road image as an overt linking device in the collection as a whole but also structured each story around a physical move from one place to another. Yet the book as a whole is artful and moving. in Among the Corn-Rows and Under the Lion's Paw. The return theme requires more detailed discussion in A Branch-Road and Up the Coulé. But the theme also anticipates his gradual estrangement from his area. who is escaping from the heavy field work of her father's Wisconsin farm in Among the Corn-Rows" (the most buoyant story in the collection). Each character responds to the conditions of western life in a manner appropriate to his superior training and experience. 7 and Garland associates their superiority with a failure or limitation of sympathy. but he can offer only pity and material comfort. his sense of social and aesthetic superiority to the middle border became his dominant response and thus precluded his permanent involvement in its life either as person or as artist. During his later career the middle border inspired in him a genteel revulsion as he compared its ugliness and its failures in taste and decorum with the scenic grandeur of the Far West or the cultural richness of New 17 . Will is studying to be a lawyer. Will Hannan and Howard McLane have attended a seminary. Within this autobiographical theme the two stories contain another. as he did in 1893. will find that the labor of a Dakota kitchen and farmyard awaits her. and Howard has graduated and has been successful in the East. Both characters are socially and aesthetically superior to western life." the return. Garland's joining of superiority and selfishness into a single theme has a twofold meaning for his work and career. less apparent. Even Julia Peterson. autobiographical element which has special significance for Garland's later career. The theme represents the particular configuration which he gave to his powerful sense of guilt in his early work.is thus the thematic and structural center of the book. for in every story the "end of the journey." In both stories the returning figure attempts to make amends for his negligence. For once Garland rescued his family. Will is disturbed by the crude behavior of the farm hands at the threshing." The two stories dramatize Garland's sense of guilt toward his family and his fear that he will be unable to compensate them for his "desertion. Will fails to consider the feelings of Agnes in the first part of A Branch-Road." and Howard has failed to consider that his family might be in need. is to the unending toil of western life. In each instance farm life has taken its toll and crushed or permanently embittered the spirits of those left behind. and Howard is affronted by the ugliness of farm life. sending a freezing. and social gatherings) "illustrate" the road motif in the collection--the road of western life 18 . with uncouth. or youth). The image of the man behind the plow was particularly moving to Garland (he had himself been that man. thin drizzle of rain. angry. Although Garland had little talent for plot. The man is plowing in the mud on a cold autumn day. as they passed. black and sticky and with a dull sheen upon it. Revulsion alone. was to lead Garland to flee the West as subject matter and as theme. cramped. farmer and farm wife. Main-Travelled Roads can be described as a collection of landscapes and genre scenes. These recurrent landscape and genre portraits (nature and farm. muddy boots upon his feet. however. hot kitchen.York and London. The woman is at work in a dirty. the scene usually has a cheerful cast. a melancholy subject.(96-97) A final group of pictorial images is that of genre scenes--the threshing. and he not only repeated it several times but also had Howard McLane imagine it as a landscape painting "by a master greater than Millet. he had a superb pictorial sense. gray. The stories of Main-Travelled Roads have another unifying element besides that of the road as theme and form. a summer day. treated with pitiless fidelity": A farm in the valley! Over the mountains swept jagged. though the reality or memory of intense labor is always present. upon a man following a plough. One such group of pictorial images juxtaposes the beauty of nature (a spring morning. In A Branch-Road and Up the Coulé revulsion is a functional and moving theme because it is inseparable from the pain and guilt of unfulfilled responsibility. and their manes and tails streamed sidewise in the blast. a sunset) and the ugliness and toil of farm activities. The ploughman clad in a ragged gray coat. Since the occasion is a holiday or an exciting group activity. The soil rolled away. sprawling clouds. the Sunday dinner at Widow Gray's. the party at the McLanes. Another focuses on a man and a woman. to shield his face from the cold and sting of it. She is poorly dressed and goes about her tasks sullenly. Every muscle of his body is straining and he is exhausted in body and spirit. The horses had a sullen and weary look. walked with his head inclined toward the sleet. And he was never to find another area of experience which engaged him as deeply as did the middle border in the late 1880s and early 1890s. But the book is also art. constitute the permanently moving in the stories of the collection. Despite his weaknesses as a writer of fiction. But in the 1891 Main-Travelled Roads Garland did write well. and the book deserves more credit for its intrinsic merits than it has usually received. Road and picture.that is "hot and dusty in summer. 19 ." though it "does sometimes cross a rich meadow where the songs of the larks and bobolinks and blackbirds are tangled" (5). rather than plot. Main-Travelled Roads is an important historical document. Since Garland was seldom to write as well again. It portrays more vividly than any work of its time the physical and social conditions which led to the Populist revolt. Garland found in the images of his youth a means of successfully imposing theme and form upon his experiences and his feelings. his later work has adversely influenced the reputation of his early fiction. and desolate and drear with mud in fall and spring. and Penelope and Corey must be encouraged to fulfill their love. Lapham is helpless and hesitant--this despite her moralizing throughout the novel--and the clergyman Sewell articulates the principle involved and confirms Lapham's choice. It revolves around his business affairs and social aspirations. 2 Despite Penelope's willingness to sacrifice herself. Lapham realizes instinctively the correct course of action. 20 . and it concludes with his decision to sacrifice wealth and position rather than engage in business duplicity. The dilemma or conflict within the subplot is solved by the use of an "economy of pain" formula. Irene must be told of Corey's true sentiments. 1 The main plot of The Rise of Silas Lapham concerns Silas's financial fall and moral rise. Irene then withdraws. Idle Tears" variety. Tom is mistakenly believed by all to be in love with Irene. But it is also true that the subplot and main plot have fundamentally similar themes. In this way Irene suffers but Penelope and Tom are spared the pain of thwarted love. The subplot centers on the triangle of Tom Corey and Irene and Penelope Lapham. Mrs. and that an examination of the thematic function of the subplot will elucidate both the ethical core of the novel and the relationship of that core to a prominent theme in Howells's later economic novels. Each of these points of view has a certain validity. Of the three characters who determine the resolution of the subplot. The dilemma caused by his revelation that he loves Penelope is resolved when Irene is informed of the error. leaving Tom and Penelope free to marry. One rather than three suffers lasting pain. as a digressive attack on the sentimental self-sacrifice of the "Tears.The Ethical Unity of The Rise of Silas Lapham CRITICS OF HOWELLS'S The Rise of Silas Lapham have usually examined its subplot as an excrescence arising from a need to satisfy the popular demand for a romantic entanglement. or as an overexpansion of the comedy of manners strain in the novel. The problem which Silas must solve in the main plot parallels that in the subplot. fair play and honest dealings in business affairs on the other. What is required is the ability to project oneself out of the immediate problem in which the personal. This fact is somewhat obscured in the context of the financial trickery involved in the sale. since the agents are willing to be cheated. Lapham finds this difficult. and the English agents who wish to purchase Lapham's depreciated mill. Within the subplot this principle requires Lapham to choose on the basis of an "economy of pain" formula in which the fewest suffer. emotionally compelling need or desire is seen out of proportion to the need of the larger unit. The thematic similarity in the two plots is that both involve a principle of morality which requires that the individual determine correct action by reference to the common good rather than to an individual need. and in both instances dishonesty undermines that which is necessary for the maintenance of the common good--effective governments on the one hand. Rogers and his family. Within the main plot it requires him to weigh his own and Rogers's personal needs against the greater need of all men for decency and honesty." 'What do you think some one else ought to do in your place?' " (240) In the main plot it is no doubt Silas's realization of the honesty that he would ask 21 . In the subplot Mrs. But Howells indicated the social implications of the sale when he immediately compared it to the defrauding of municipal governments. The method used to achieve moral insight is also similar in both plots. they also represent society at large. and Sewell asks her. In both instances wealth and anonymity encourage dishonesty. 3 The crucial point is that the Englishmen are more than mere scoundrels and more than the agents for an "association of rich and charitable people" (325). for at one point in the events leading up to his rejection of the Englishmen's offer he reflects quizzically that "It was certainly ridiculous for a man who had once so selfishly consulted his own interests to be stickling now about the rights of others of others" (330). The three groups who will be affected by his decision are he and his family ( Lapham is a participant now as well as an arbiter). Lapham's refusal to sell therefore ultimately contributes to the well-being of society as a whole. His "rise" is posited exactly in these terms. Lapham again falters. a formula which he later translates into its exact corollary. 4 It occurs. the greatest happiness for the greatest number. and Sewell (at the end of the novel) attempts explanations. His moral rise is the product of more than a conscience troubled by his earlier treatment of Rogers. at this point. One of the functions of the subplot is therefore to "double" the moral theme of the novel. the subplot of The Rise of Silas Lapham serves the functions of doubling the statement of the novel's theme. Mrs.of other men in a similar situation which aids him in making the same demand of himself. Silas is capable of moral insight. Lastly. and Mill wrote: 22 . It is possible. Dominating the center of the novel it is solved before the full exposition of Lapham's business crisis. To sum up. I do not wish to intimate that Howells consciously adopted the ethical ideas of Mill. Howells's emerging Christian socialism in the late 1880s is well known. when he is faced in the main plot with the more difficult problem of the ethical relationship of the individual to society. between Howells's early remark that Lapham "could not rise" (50) to unselfishness in his dealings with Rogers and Lapham's own words at the close which indicate a concern for the "rights of others. to intensify and clarify it by introducing it within a narrower. to suggest that the ethical core of the novel can be described as utilitarianism (as interpreted by John Stuart Mill). and of introducing Lapham to the correct solution of moral problems. as in the subplot. in other words. of foreshadowing the moral principle governing the main plot. The subplot also plays other important roles. It is also the result of his ready absorption of the "economy of pain" formula as a moral guide in the subplot. more transparent dilemma. Rather. I believe that the similarity between Mill's utilitarianism and the ethical principles of The Rise of Silas Lapham is probably the result of parallel attempts to introduce the ethical teachings of Christ within social contexts and yet avoid supernatural sanctions. since both plots dramatize a moral principle in which the correct action is that which results in the greatest happiness for the greatest number." The subplot thus contributes to the "education" of Lapham in the correct solution of moral problems. and to love your neighbor as yourself. his appeal to Lapham is based on the premise that In our dealings with each other we should be guided by the Golden Rule. To do as you would be done by. I should be robbing the people who trusted them?'" (327) There is a twofold advantage in viewing the main and subplots of The Rise of Silas Lapham as controlled by a similar conception of moral behavior. constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality. It is within a single moral system. 8 Secondly. for example.. That Howells was conscious of the applicability of the Golden Rule to the theme of The Rise of Silas Lapham is clear. and therefore is wrong. I should consider that man's family. I believe. "'Did you tell her. I told Mrs. as I was saying to Mrs. Penelope's self. In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth. and therefore is right. I told her that if I knew myself. from his ironic use of it in connection with Rogers. the theme of the novel anticipates Howells's acceptance of 23 ..I must again repeat. When Rogers senses that Lapham may reject the Englishmen's offer. the novel takes on a thematic unity and structural symmetry. First.. that the apparent conflict between the attack on self-sacrifice in the subplot and Lapham's selfsacrifice in the main plot is reconciled.'" he asks Rogers. we read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. Lapham before you came in. is not the agent's own happiness.. Silas's selfsacrifice increases the happiness of mankind collectively.sacrifice would diminish the sum total of happiness of those affected by her action. and had patiently borne my undeserved suspicions. Lapham. that the happiness which forms the utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct. who had honorably endeavored to discharge his obligations to me. (327) But Lapham's answer is the response of a man who is aware of the sophistry of a narrow use of the Golden Rule and who recognizes the necessity for the consideration of a wider range of obligation that individual need.. " 'that if I went in with you and those fellows. I should in your place consider the circumstances of a man in mine. but that of all concerned. 24 . In The Rise of Silas Lapham that theme appears in a less obvious social context ( Howells had to strain for the connection between the English agents and society) and--more importantly--as an obligation which the average individual can grasp and fulfill. 9"' The conviction that man's primary commitment is to mankind was to be one of the themes which Howells emphasized in the series of novels from Annie Kilburn ( 1888) to A Traveller from Altruria ( 1894). His novels during the years following the Haymarket crisis were to examine the theme of man's duty to his fellow men more intensively but less hopefully. Tolstoy had taught him to view life. "not as a chase of a forever impossible personal happiness. as. he later explained. For in the two plots of The Rise of Silas Lapham Howells had already begun working out a belief that man must rise above himself and view life.Tolstoy's ethical ideals within the next few years and helps explain his response to those ideals once he encountered them. but as a field for endeavor toward the happiness of the whole human family. I believe. The writer who seeks to define tragedy usually finds that his definition takes shape around such traditional guideposts as the tragic hero. Rich ard Chase argues that American naturalism is realism with a "necessitarian ideology. recognize that many literary genres and modes have their barriers of established terms and ideas to overcome or outflank. but it has also handicapped thinking both about the movement as a whole and about individual works within the movement. is that it is essentially realism infused with a pessimistic determinism. and so on. has two such channelled approaches to its definition. recognition and catharsis. American naturalism. most critics agree. The first is that since naturalism comes after realism. it is primarily an "extension" or continuation of realism-- only a little different. This traditional approach to naturalism through realism and through philosophical determinism is historically justifiable and has served a useful purpose. as a concept. including American) considers it as "no more than an emphatic and explicit philosophical position taken by some realists." the position being a "pessimistic materialistic determinism. is the particular philosophical orientation of the naturalists. It has resulted in much condescension toward those writers who are supposed to be naturalists yet whose fictional sensationalism (an aspect of romanticism) and moral ambiguity (a quality 25 ." 1 The common belief is that the naturalists were like the realists in their fidelity to the details of contemporary life. A traditional and widely accepted concept of American naturalism." and George J.Chapter 2 American Naturalism: 1890-1910 MOST LITERARY CRITICS and historians who attempt definitions are aware of the dangers and advantages inherent in this enterprise. But few. and since it seems to take literature in the same direction as realism. The second almost inevitable approach involves this difference. the tragic flaw. therefore. Becker (defining all naturalism. but that they depicted everyday life with a greater sense of the role of such causal forces as heredity and environment in determining behavior and belief. The major distinction between realism and naturalism. heredity. 2 For the time being. the uneducated. The second tension involves the theme of the naturalistic novel. as we ourselves usually conceive of our lives. I would like. or chance. the unsophisticated. The naturalist populates his novel pri marily from the lower middle class or the lower class. The first tension is that between the subject matter of the naturalistic novel and the concept of man which emerges from this subject matter. let this be a working definition. discomforting truths which he has found in the ideas and life of his late nineteenth-century world. His fictional world is that of the commonplace and unheroic in which life would seem to be chiefly the dull round of daily existence. The naturalist appears to say that although the individual may be a cipher in a world made amoral by man's lack of 26 . His characters are the poor.inconsistent with the absolutes of determinism) appear to make their work flawed specimens of the mode. The tension here is that between the naturalist's desire to represent in fiction the new. discovers in this material the extraordinary and excessive in human nature. A naturalistic novel is thus an extension of realism only in the sense that both modes often deal with the local and contemporary. instinct. to be amplified and made more concrete by the illustrations from which it has been drawn. I suggest that the naturalistic novel usually contains two tensions or contradictions. The naturalist. such as acts of violence and passion which involve sexual adventure or bodily strength and which culminate in desperate moments and violent death. and also his desire to find some meaning in experience which reasserts the validity of the human enterprise. to propose a modified definition of late nineteenth-century American naturalism. therefore. and that the two in conjunction comprise both an interpretation of experience and a particular aesthetic recreation of experience. however. But he also suggests a compensating humanistic value in his characters or their fates which affirms the significance of the individual and of his life. The naturalist often describes his characters as though they are conditioned and controlled by environment. the two constitute the theme and form of the naturalistic novel. In other words. But the naturalist discovers in this world those qualities of man usually associated with the heroic or adventurous. These works are important novels by the three leading late nineteenth-century American naturalists. and each novel has frequently been read as a key example of its author's values and his fictional form. I believe. The naturalistic novel is therefore not so superficial or reductive as it implicitly appears to be in its conventional defi nition. It involves a belief that life on its lowest levels is not so simple as it seems to be from higher levels. 27 . both familiar and strange. It suggests that even the least significant human being can feel and strive powerfully and can suffer the extraordinary consequences of his emotions. are Frank Norris's McTeague ( 1899). given the significance of these writers and of these novels. But. It pleases us with its sensationalism without affronting our sense of probability.responsibility for his fate. 3 Naturalism reflects an affirmative ethical conception of life. It involves us in the experience of a life both commonplace and extraordinary. Thus. both simple and complex. for it asserts the value of all life by endowing the lowest character with emotion and defeat and with moral ambiguity. It discovers the "romance of the commonplace. and also to suggest the possible range of variation within it. A definition drawn from these three novels will not be applicable to all late nineteenth-centur naturalistic fiction. and that no range of human experience is free of the moral complexities and ambiguities which Milton set his fallen angels to debating. be a useful introduction to this major movement in American literary history. the melodramatic sensationalism and moral "confusion" which are often attacked in the naturalistic novel should really be incorporated into a normative definition of the mode and be recognized as its essential constituents. The three novels which I have chosen to illustrate this definition. Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie ( 1900). no matter how poor or ignoble he may seem. and Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage ( 1895)." as Frank Norris put it. The naturalistic novel derives much of its aesthetic effect from these contrasts. the imagination refuses to accept this formula as the total meaning of life and so seeks a new basis for man's sense of his own dignity and importance. it would. ordered world of Polk Street. McTeague is settled and content in this life. A central theme in Norris's work is that beneath the surface of our placid. the lower middle class service street in San Francisco on which McTeague practices and lives. or the nearly murderous fight between Marcus and McTeague at the picnic. In one such moment the frightened and incoherent Trina. as a controlling paradox in McTeague as in scene after scene he introduces the sensational into the commonplace activities and setting of Polk Street. and so on. Some of the best moments in the novel powerfully unite these two streams of the commonplace and the extraordinary. Norris dramatically establishes Polk Street as above all a life of the repetitious and constant. the grocery. The street exists as a source of the ordered and the routine in McTeague's life. that the romance of the extraordinary is not limited to the distant in time and place but can be found "in the brownstone house on the corner and in the office building downtown.A good deal of McTeague is devoted to depicting the routine. as a world where the harness shop. and the car conductors' coffee joint are always available in their set roles. rushes out into the everyday routine of Polk Street and has difficulty convincing the butcher's boy that something is wrong or even convincing herself that it is not improper "to make a disturbance and create a scene in the street. a vicious murder in a San Francisco kindergarten." 4 Norris therefore used the incident which had stimulated him to write the novel. So we have such incidents as McTeague grossly kissing the anesthetized Trina in his dental parlor. and through constant incidental allusion to its activities and inhabitants. where the children go to school at the same time each day. The life of Polk Street enters the novel in two ways--through set pieces describing street activities or the daily lives of the central characters in relation to the life of the street. everyday lives there is turbulence. having just found Maria's corpse with its cut throat and its blood soaked clothes." 5 Norris believed that the source of this violence beneath the surface placidity of life is the presence in all men of animal qualities which have played a major role in man's evolutionary development but 28 . followed by the shop clerks coming to work. and we recognize that his inner needs and outer world are in harmony. The woman in Trina "was not yet awakened. Norris is at pains to stress their overt sexual innocence yet intuitive sexuality. she was yet. after all" (48). he seizes her "in his enormous arms. With each concession gained the man's desire cools. he thought less of her. the whole sex. that it belonged to the changeless order of things--the man desiring the woman only for what she withholds. as one might say. grossly. 6 Norris's theme is that man's racial atavism (particularly his brute sexual desires) and man's individual family heritage (alcoholic degeneracy in McTeague's case) can combine as a force toward reversion. For McTeague. It was not only her that he saw and felt. for "the instant she allowed him to kiss her. They kissed each other. with every surrender made the woman's adoration increases" (48). both react intuitively and atavistically--McTeague desiring to seize and possess her. all in an instant. since his atavistic brutality is in part caused by his degenerate parents. an element which contributes to the novel's thematic tension. Despite their innocence and lack of experience. any man caught up in the net of sex. the woman worshipping the man for that which she yields up to him. McTeague is in one sense a "special case" of reversion. Within the literary conventions of the day. an entire new humanity" (16). and in this second aspect of man's inherited animal nature Norris introduces a tragic element into McTeague's fall. full in the mouth" (48).which are now frequently atavistic and destructive. At this moment the strands in the web of sexual determinism begin to pull taut. She was not so desirable. without sex" (14). Trina is his "first experience. He is also. this kiss symbolizes Trina's sexual submission. With her the feminine element suddenly entered his little world. toward a return to the emotions and instincts of man's animal past. she instinctively withdrawing yet desiring to be conquered. Norris is concerned in this second meeting not with a 29 . turning her head to his. Then Trina gave up. crushing down her struggle with his immense strength. When Trina hesitates. In describing the courtship of Trina and McTeague. The most important sexual encounter between McTeague and Trina occurs at the B Street Station where McTeague for a second time proposes. however. it was the woman. McTeague senses this diminution along with a dim awareness "that this must be so. In a scene of considerable power Trina comes upon him sitting in his dental chair. A major theme in McTeague is therefore that of the sexual tragedy of man and woman. his red hands lying idly in 30 . In McTeague sex is that which comes to all men and women. with an unseeing gaze. Rather.special flaw in McTeague or Trina but with a sexual determinism affecting all men. The tension between this deterministic aspect of Mc Teague and its humanistic element does not lie in McTeague as a fully developed tragic figure. as he does in Vandover and the Brute. but rather reaches out toward the unexplored ground of the human dilemma of sexual attraction. his reaction is that of a man whose life is emptied of all meaning. that man's attempt to achieve an ordered world is constantly thwarted by man himself. across the roofs opposite. When McTeague learns that he can no longer practice dentistry. Norris does not tell the old tale of the fallen fornicator. "looking stupidly out of the windows. Caught up by drives and instincts beyond their control or comprehension. Norris carefully documents McTeague's life as a dentist and as an inhabitant of Polk Street because the habitual tasks and minor successes of this life represent the order and stability which McTeague requires. disrupting their lives and placing them in relationships which the sanctity of marriage cannot prevent from ending in chaos and destruction. Norris devotes much attention to the element of order in the details of McTeague's life not only because of his belief in the romance of the commonplace but because the destruction of that order is the source of the tragic quality in McTeague's fall and of our own compassionate involvement with him despite his grotesqueness. they mate by chance. In the course of the novel we begin to feel compassion for him as he becomes a victim of Trina's avarice and as we recognize that his emerging brutality is at least partly the result of the destruction of his world. it is contained in the theme that man can seldom escape the violence inherent in his own nature. the instinctive desire of the woman for sexual submission responding to the first man who assaults her--these are the atavistic animal forces which bring Trina and McTeague together. The possessive sexual desire of the man aroused by the first woman he experiences sensually. too. of furniture. The theme of McTeague is not that drunkenness leads to a tragic fall. There is a sense of common humanity in McTeague's fall. But because he is trapped in the universal net of sex. Norris does not deny the strength of man's past or present animality. is of normalcy. We are never completely one with McTeague. yet who are brought low by their needs and desires. of the steady pace of life. since life does indeed seem to be measured out in coffee spoons. Even more than Norris. in short. but neither does he deny the poignancy of the fall of even such a gross symbol of this animality as McTeague. we respond to him ultimately as a human being in distress. His early novels in particular affirm that we cannot escape the impact of physical reality and that this fact is one of the few that man may know with certainty. So the several worlds of Carrie--her sister's working class existence. The effect on us. his brute strength and dull mind put us off. whose fall contains elements of the tragic. It is out of this tension that much of the meaning and power of the novel arises. her life with Drouet in Chicago and with Hurstwood in New York--achieve a sense of massiveness both in their painstaking documentation and in their inescapable effect on Carrie. Theodore Dreiser creates a sense of the solidity of life. Dreiser's ability to capture the tangible commonplace of everyday existence powerfully suggests that the commonplace and everyday are 31 . but that tragedy is inherent in the human situation given man's animal past and the possibility that he will be dominated by that past in particular circumstances.his lap" (151). of how much one owes the grocer and of exactly how much one earns and spends--the impact. For McTeague is in part a tragic novel. True. since we are no longer certain of man's transcendent nobility or of the reality of major responsibility for our fates. and that quality is perhaps the modern residue of the tragic theme. as a figure of some significance despite his limitations--as a man. McTeague neither bears full responsibility for his fate nor is he in any sense noble or profound. however. He is rather like Gervaise in L'Assommoir: they are both poor creatures who want above all a place to rest and be content. is not only to enforce a sense of the importance of clothes. and because we recognize the poignancy of the loss of his world. par ticularly since he returns again and again to the unexciting details of the furnishings of an apartment or the contents of a meal. or a Hurstwood jaded by the middle class trivialities of his family-- that when such as these strive to discover a life approximate to their natures they introduce into their lives the violent and the extraordinary. He frequently sets events or beliefs in ironic juxtaposition. His theme is that those of a finer. because each appeals to some quality in her temperament which she finds unfulfilled in her life of the moment. This is not to say that his fiction lacks an ironic dimension. more intense. Dreiser's plodding. Carrie leaves her sister's flat for two illicit alliances. Drouet and Hurstwood represent to her not so much wealth or sexual attraction as an appeal to something intangibly richer and fuller in herself. Carrie's career on the stage symbolizes both the emotional intensity she is capable of bringing to life and the fact that she requires the intrinsically extraordinary and 32 . more emotional nature who desire to break out of their normal solid world--whether it be a Carrie oppressed by the dull repetitiousness and crudity of her sister's home. sets forth the idea-- Lionel Trilling to the contrary 7--that the physically real is not the only reality and that men seek something in life beyond it. Dreiser's depiction of her almost asexual relations with all of these men represents less his capitulation to contemporary publishing restrictions (although some of this is present) than his desire that the three characters reflect the upward course of Carrie's discovery and realization of her inner nature. and then finally to Ames. as when Carrie is worried that Hurstwood will discover that she and Drouet are unmarried though she herself is unaware that Hurstwood is married. Moreover. She is drawn to each in turn. Finally. a vision which colors every incident or observation in Crane's work with the implication that things are not what they seem. Dreiser's central theme in Sister Carrie. But Dreiser's irony differs from Crane's intense and pervasive ironic vision of life. graceless paragraphs imply the opposite--that the concrete world he so seriously details is real and discernible and that nothing can shake or undermine it. attracted to each man principally by the opportunities he offers for a better life. however.the essence of experience. Dreiser's dispassionate tone contributes to this effect. who appears to combine the sensational and commonplace much as Dreiser does. We follow him as he breaks the seemingly set mold of his life by his theft and by his elopement. Dreiser's effect is more thematic and less scenic because he colors the sensational with the same emotional stolidity with which he characterizes all experience. since Hurstwood seeks death as a refuge. however. but that they are so pervasive and implicit in our experience that their very texture differs little from the ordinary course of events. This scene is in one sense a special instance. and then to say weakly. His principal aesthetic impact. Dreiser appears to say. "What's the use?" as he "stretched himself to rest." 8 Dreiser thus submerges an inherently sensational event in the trivial and unemotional.exciting world of the theatre to call forth and embody her emotional depth. Hurstwood's suicide can be explored as a typical example of Dreiser's combination of the concretely commonplace and the sensational. With Carrie gone. Norris's effect is basically that of dramatic sensationalism. For him. His participation in the violence of the street car strike is his final attempt to recover his fortunes (and Carrie) in New York. It takes place in a cheap Bowery hotel. since she represents to him his last opportunity to grasp life fully and intensely. Thus. Hurstwood also introduces the sensational into his life by reaching out beyond his established world. he sinks still further and eventually commits suicide. of the excitement of violence and sudden death. such potentially exciting and dramatically sensational moments in 33 . He not only "takes the edge off" the extraordinariness of the event by his full and detached elaboration of its commonplace setting but also casts it in the imagery of enervation and rest. Hurstwood's method is to turn on the gas. But Dreiser's total effect as a novelist is often similar to the effect produced by this scene as he dramatizes throughout Sister Carrie the solidity and therefore seeming normalcy of experience and yet its underlying extraordinariness if man seeks beyond the routine. is different from that of Norris. the extraordinary arises from his attempt to gain and then hold Carrie. not resolutely but hesitantly. It is not only that the sensational and extraordinary exist in our commonplace lives. Her needs are of two kinds--first to attain the tangible objects and social symbols of comfort and beauty which she sees all around her in Chicago and New York. a dress seen on the street) is determined by accidental circumstance. For in this his first novel Dreiser endows Carrie with the same capacity to wonder and to dream which he felt so strongly in himself. and then to reach out for it. This "dream" quality underlies the most striking symbol in the novel. and then to be loved. Chance involves her with Drouet and later plays a large role in Hurstwood's theft and therefore in her own departure with him. But Carrie's response to her needs is only one side of her nature. as when Drouet takes her to a good restaurant and buys her some fashionable clothes and so introduces into her imagination the possibility of making these a part of her life. Carrie. Much of the concrete world that Dreiser fills in so exhaustively in Sister Carrie thus exists as a determin ing force in Carrie's life. Of the major forces in her life. the rocking chair. has her life shaped by chance and need. She also possesses a quality which is intrinsic to her being. first moving her to escape it. it is primarily her desire for objects that furnish a sense of physical and mental well-being--for fine clothing and furniture and attractive apartments and satisfactory food--which determines much of her life. though its external shape (a Drouet. like many of Dreiser's characters. The rocking chair has correctly been interpreted as principally a symbol of circularity because Carrie rocks on her first 34 . As she gains more of these. as in her encounters with working-class Chicago. It is this ability to dream about the nature of oneself and one's fate and of where one is going and how one will get there and to wonder whether happiness is real and possible or only an illusion--it is this capacity which ultimately questions the reality and meaning of the seemingly solid and plain world in which we find ourselves.Dreiser's fiction as the seduction of Jennie Gerhardt or the imprisonment of Frank Cowperwood have an almost listless dullness compared to Norris's treatment of parallel events in his fiction. her fear of returning to poverty and crudity--to her sister's condition--impels her to seek even more vigorously. In The Red Badge Henry Fleming is a raw. is intent on revealing the commonplace nature of the seemingly exceptional. I believe--meaning and significance and stature because of her capacity to rock and dream. But in any case. Crane. Whereas Norris demonstrates that the violent and the extraordinary are present in seemingly dull and commonplace lives. and though her dreams take an earthly shape controlled by her world. but it moves. reflects Carrie's continuing ability to wonder about herself and her future and this reveals that her imaginative response to life has not been dulled by experience. even more than Dreiser. and though she is judged immoral by the world because she violates its conventions in pursuit of her dreams. The symbol does indeed function in this way. Thus Carrie seeks to fulfill each new venture and gain each new object as though these were the only realities of life. and in that paradox lies Dreiser's involvement with Carrie and his ability to communicate the intensity and nature of her quest. she has for Dreiser--and for us. too. she possesses this inner force. The rocking chair goes nowhere. and man is ever pursuing and never finding. a force which is essentially bold and free. to question life and to pursue it. untried country youth who seeks the romance and glory of war but who finds that his romantic. 9 Dreiser seems to imply by the symbol that nothing really has happened to Carrie. she is essentially the same both morally and spiritually. For in his mind. Perhaps Ames represents the next. higher step in this quest. in its persistence. The Red Badge of Courage also embodies a different combination of the sensational and commonplace than that found in McTeague. Although she has not achieved the happiness that she thought accompanied the life she desired and which she now has. Dreiser implies. the world is both solid and unknowable. but it also. that although her outer circumstances have changed. Although it brings her worry and loneliness--the rocking chair symbolizes these as well--it is an element in her which Dreiser finds estimable and moving. chivalric preconceptions of battle are 35 . and yet by her very dissatisfaction and questioning of what she has gained to imply the greater reality of the mind and spirit that dreams and wonders. Dreiser says. she will continue to search.night in Chicago and again at the novel's close in her New York apartment. She will always be the dreamer. All life. Henry Fleming is the universal youth who leaves home unaware of himself or the world. Much of Crane's imagery in the novel is therefore consciously and pointedly antiheroic. in its selfdeceptions. Soldiers and generals do not strike heroic poses. and in its acceptance of appearances for realities. 10 and mere chance determines rewards and punishments-- the death of a Conklin. Crane implies that although Fleming may again run from battle and although he will no doubt always have the human capacity to rationalize his weaknesses. the dead are not borne home triumphantly on their shields but fester where they have fallen. A wounded officer worries about the cleanliness of his uniform. But another major element in his desire to reduce war to the commonplace arises from his casting of Fleming's experiences in the form of a "life" or initiation allegory. he is at least no longer the innocent. His participation in battle is his introduction to life as for the first time he tests himself and his preconceptions of experience against experience itself. Crane appears to be 36 . If The Red Badge is viewed in this way--that is. War to Crane is like life itself in its injustice. in its mixing of the ludicrous and the momentarily exhilarating.false. He emerges at the end of the battle not entirely self-perceptive or firm-willed--Crane is too much the ironist for such a reversal--but rather as one who has encountered some of the strengths and some of the failings of himself and others. as an antiheroic allegory of "life"--it becomes clear that Crane is representing in his own fashion the naturalistic belief in the interpenetration of the commonplace and the sensational. a soldier sweats and labors at his arms "like a laborer in a foundry". and courage is not a conscious striving for an ideal mode of behavior but a temporary delirium derived from animal fury and social pride or fear. not only in his obviously satirical use of conventional chivalric imagery in unheroic situations (a soldier bearing a rumor comes "waving his [shirt] bannerlike" and adopting "the important air of a herald in red and gold" [5]) but also more subtly in his use of machine and animal imagery to deflate potentially heroic moments. Crane's desire to devalue the heroic in war stems in part from his stance as an ironist reacting against a literary and cultural tradition of idealized courage and chivalry. the red badge of a Fleming. To Crane. a young urchin defends the honor of Rum Alley on a heap of gravel. war as an allegorical setting for the emergence of youth into knowledge embodies both the violence of this birth and the commonplaces of life which the birth reveals--that men are controlled by the trivial. that there is no separation between the sensational and the commonplace. War is an appropriate allegorical symbol of this test. conceived both realistically and symbolically. Crane shows us what Norris and Dreiser only suggest." the long-awaited "chivalric" encounter is thwarted by the bride's appearance. the accidental. His image of life as an unheroic battle captures in one ironic symbol both his romanticism and his naturalism--or. despite the preservation of such accoutrements of the noble as a red badge or a captured flag. his belief that we reveal character in violence but that human character is predominantly fallible and selfdeceptive. a constant sea of violence in which we inevitably immerse ourselves and in which we test our beliefs and our values. 37 . in "The Blue Hotel. and in "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky. but rather in the sense that the proving and testing of oneself. that the finding of oneself occurs best in moments of stress and is itself often an act of violence. therefore. not in the broad Darwinian sense of a struggle for existence or the survival of the fittest. Each of these crucial or significant events has at its core Crane's desire to reduce the violent and extraordinary to the commonplace. is a struggle. for to Crane violence is the very essence of life. that the two are coexistent in every aspect and range of life. in "The Open Boat." the death of the Swede is accompanied by a derisive sign on the cash register." the stalwart oiler suffers an inconsequential and meaningless death. He differs from Norris in kind and from Dreiser in degree in that his essentially ironic imagination leads him to reverse the expected and to find the commonplace in the violent rather than the sensational beneath the trivial. Much of Crane's best fiction displays this technique of ironic deflation. the degradingly unheroic. In Maggie. entails the violent and the deeply emotional. in less literary terms. a reduction which indicates both his ironic vision of man's romantic pretensions and his belief in the reality of the fusion of the violent and the commonplace in experience.saying. Once in battle. But.As was true of Norris and Dreiser. He also presents Fleming's discovery that he is enclosed in a "moving box" of "tradition and law" (21) even at those moments when he believes himself capable of rational decision and action--that the opinions and actions of other men control and direct him. He is separated from them by doubts about his behavior under fire and by fear of their knowledge of his doubts. The Red Badge presents a vision of a man as a creature capable of advancing in some areas of knowledge and power but forever imprisoned within the walls of certain inescapable human and social imitations. the thematic tension or complexity he embodies in his work. But something has happened to Fleming which Crane values and applauds. Fleming's self- evaluations contrast ironically with his motives and actions throughout the novel. Crane depicts the similarity between Henry Fleming's "will" and an animal's instinctive response to crisis or danger. Early in the novel Fleming feels at odds with his comrades. and his final estimation of himself represents primarily man's ability to be proud of his public deeds while rationalizing his private failings. nature and man are really two. Lastly. The "subtle battle brotherhood" (31) replaces his earlier isolation. and nature of fers no reliable or useful guide to experience or to action. and in one sense the rest of the novel is devoted to Fleming's loss and recovery of his feeling of 38 . not one. Crane's particular way of combining the sensational and the commonplace is closely related to the second major aspect of his naturalism. These doubts and fears isolate him from his fellows. he does not paint a totally bleak picture of man in The Red Badge. Fleming's own sanguine view of himself at the close of the novel--that he is a man--cannot be taken at face value. despite Crane's perception of these limitations and inadequacies. True. Fleming becomes "not a man but a member" as he is "welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire" (30). Crane dramatizes Fleming's realization that although he can project his emotions into natural phenomena and therefore derive comfort from a sense of nature's identification with his desires and needs. and his isolation is intensified by his growing awareness that the repressive power of the "moving box" of his regiment binds him to a group from which he now wishes to escape. however. Crane thus points out that courage has primarily a social reality. But this presentation of the reality and power of the 39 . After his initial success in battle. Crane therefore establishes a vital organic relationship between his deflation of the traditional idea of courage and his assertion of the need for and the benefits of social unity. He also demonstrates that this bond of fellowship may be destructive and oppressive when it restricts or determines individual choice. But despite the tainted origin of this symbol of fraternity. as everywhere in Crane. But Crane also maintains that in social cohesion man gains both what little power of selfpreservation he possesses and a gratifying and necessary sense of acceptance and acknowledgement difficult to attain otherwise. that it is a quality which exists not absolutely but by virtue of other men's opinions. After gaining a "red badge" which symbolically reunites him with those soldiers who remained and fought. And it is the absence of this quality and its replacement by fear and distrust which characterizes the world of "The Blue Hotel" and causes the tragic denouement in that story. He is accepted gladly when he returns. Here. after all. its effect on Henry and his fellows is real and significant. and then runs because he feels that the rest of the regiment is deserting as well.oneness with his fellows. at first stands fast because he is afraid of what his comrades will do or think. Crane believed that this feeling of trust and mutual confidence among men is essential. and that the social unity born of a courageous fellowship may therefore be based on selfdeception or on deception of others. Fleming. for Henry's "red badge" is not a true battle wound. as in the "moving box" of the regiment. he returns to his regiment and participates successfully in the last stages of the battle. It is this quality which knits together the four men in the open boat and lends them moral strength. and in his renewed confidence and pride he finds strength and a kind of joy. there is a deflating irony. and it is one of the few values he confirms again and again in his fiction. His extreme stage of isolation from the regiment and from mankind occurs when he abandons the tattered soldier. Henry loses this quality as he deserts his comrades and then wanders away from his regiment in actuality and in spirit. "He attacks the conventional heroic ideal by showing that a man's actions in battle are usually determined by his imitation of the actions of others--by the group as a whole. was to represent the intermingling in life of controlling force and individual worth. yet this involvement is the source of his sense of psychic oneness. but they have not yet reached the despairing emptiness of Joseph Wood Krutch's The Modern Temper. yet this symbol aids him in recovering his group identity and in benefiting the group. The primary goal of the late nineteenth-century American naturalists was not to demonstrate the overwhelming and oppressive reality of the material forces present in our lives. then. Henry Fleming falsely acquires a symbol of group identity. Man's involvement with others forces him into psychic compulsion (Henry's running away). and few soldiers are clearly God's chosen. The naturalists do not dehumanize man. They rather suggest new or modified areas of value in man while engaged in destroying such old and to them unreal sources of human self-importance as romantic love or moral responsibility or heroism. rather. but neither 40 . They are some distance from traditional Christian humanism. If they were not always clear in distinguishing between these two qualities in experience. There is. Few battles are clearly or cleanly won or lost. a moral ambiguity in Crane's conception of man's relationship with his fellows. it was partly because they were novelists responding to life's complexities and were not philosophers categorizing experience. and partly because they were suffi ciently of our own time to doubt the validity of moral or any other absolutes. an ambiguity which permeates his entire vision of man. but if he is not the "man" he thinks he has become. Their attempt. he has at least shed some of the innocence of the child. Crane's allegory of life as a battle is thus appropriate for another reason besides its relevance to the violence of discovery. and in their struggle they learn something about their limitations and capacities and something about the nature of their relations with their fellow men. and this knowledge is rewarding even though they never discover the full significance or direction of the campaign in which they are engaged. But men struggle.group also suggests the advantages possible in group unity and group action. Henry is still for the most part self-deceived at the close of the novel. One should not deny the bleak view of man inherent in McTeague's or Hurstwood's decline or in Fleming's self-deceptions. This variation derives principally from the differing thematic tension in the two novels. Norris wishes to demonstrate the tragic destruction of McTeague's commonplace world by the violence inherent in all life. and-at its best--in its thematic depth and importance. The naturalistic novel is thus no different from any other major literary genre in its complex intermingling of form and theme. Naturalism and Form MOST CRITICS WHO discuss American literary naturalism do so both warily and wearily. which is often characterized by a species of adolescent naturalism.should one forget that to the naturalists man's weaknesses and limited knowledge and thwarted desires were still sources of compassion and worth as well as aspects of the human condition to be more forthrightly acknowledged than writers had done in the past. A successful naturalistic novel is like any successful work of art in that it embodies a cogent relationship between its form (its particular combination of the commonplace and sensational) and its theme (its particular tension between the individually significant and the deterministic). yet does so within a body of shared intellectual and literary assumptions belonging to their common historical and literary moment. There is a major difference. Nor is naturalism simply a piling on of unselective blocks of documentation. Cady begins with 41 . whereas Crane wishes to dramatize Fleming's violent initiation into the commonplace nature of the heroic. Like the poetry of the two earlier figures. We have done a disservice to the late nineteenth-century American naturalists by our earlier simplistic conception of their art. in its reflection of an author's individual temperament and experience within large generic similarities. their fiction expresses strikingly individual and contrasting visions of experience. What is one to say about this significant yet intellectually disreputable body of literature which ranges from the stylism of Crane to the anti-stylism of Dreiser. within general similarities. Norris and Crane occupy positions in American naturalism analogous to that of Wordsworth and Byron in English romanticism. between Norris's discovery of the sensational in the commonplace and Crane's dramatization of the triviality of the sensational. He is remarkably perceptive and persuasive in describing the sensibilities of the romancer and the realist--the quality of mind which seeks to transcend the limitations of experience in the one and to affirm the moral and aesthetic value of our limited but shared perception and experience in the other--but his strategy fails him when he reaches naturalism. except perhaps to speculate on the twist of literary fortune which casts up this sport on the American scene while for the most part sparing their English cousins. the too-ready absorption of contemporary scientism. "Upon Norris and all the other artists of his richly endowed generation. At this point he throws up his hands in despair at the incongruity between what naturalists appeared to believe about human nature and what such a belief implies about their sensibilities." in his The Light of Common Day ( 1971). is typical of much discussion of American naturalism. he approaches naturalism with the almost instinctive distaste of the intellectual toward writers who handle ideas sloppily. In order to distinguish among the major nineteenth-century American literary movements. Realist. Nobody was a naturalist. Thus. Cady adopts the strategy of defining the literary sensibility or temperament which produced a characteristic work within each movement. He therefore concludes that in fact there is no such thing as a naturalist sensibility. there are only covert humanists and ameliorists playing with naturalistic ideas and subject matter. Everybody born after the Civil War felt and responded after his fashion to the terrible pull of a sensibility in the grounds for which nobody finally believed.an ideal construct of the naturalistic ethos--principally that of a universe of forces in which man is an insignificant and even contemptible figure--and then finds that few naturalists coherently or consistently inform their work with this ethos. there seems little to say. the documentation of sensational lower class life. After one has noted the foreign influences. "the sensibility of the naturalist exerted a magnetic pull. and the intellectual confusion." 42 . Edwin Cady's essay "Three Sensibilities: Romancer. Naturalist." Cady writes. There really are no naturalists in American literature. or within themselves. are we to do with American naturalism. a critic of naturalism who has read a great many novels from Defoe to the recent past but little else.Cady's observation is of course true. The major tradition in Eng lish and American fiction until the closing decades of the nineteenth century was to depict most sequences of events-that is. a work of fiction takes its form from its narrative of what happens to people when they interact with each other. for example. like so many critics of American What. and in more or less degree the distinctive shape he gives his qualified endorsement of the human condition is a literary mask--be it romanticist. but its truth is for the most part critically unproductive. or naturalist--through which a gifted and feeling man speaks. realist. or spiritual movement of characters through time--as progressive. but he would be unaware of all matters involving the origins and the ideological and cultural context of particular moments in the history of the form. our critic could look at some characteristic late nineteenth-century American novels to determine if they share. intellectual. From the vantage point of this sophisticated innocence. Narratives were progressive 43 . He would possess much awareness of how fiction works as an art form and of major changes in the form of the novel throughout its history. Almost every major writer in any age is a humanist. We might posit. but rather a distinctive fictional style or shape which can be interpreted as the response of this generation of writers to their experience and which distinguishes this moment from other moments. From the angle of vision of a sophisticated innocence. To begin. since it seems intractable to criticism and since we cannot erase it from our literary history? A possible way out of our dilemma is to seek critical approaches or strategies which bypass the hazards which result from considering naturalism primarily as a movement closely allied to its contemporary intellectual and social background. Moreover. not traces of evolutionary thought or Zolaesque sensationalism. and thus create physical or psychological events. This reader would have a kind of sophisticated innocence. or with their worlds. the physical. then. To say that there are no true naturalists but only the "magnetic pull" of a contemporaneously compelling literary mask is to state an extreme instance of a general truth. then. Sister Carrie. not a single. the gold of Trina's hoard that he later covets. B.. In each of these novels-- McTeague. and man is imperfect. I would attempt to discuss all of the more prominent of these narrative tendencies. and a third in which a raw country youth takes part in a great battle and proves his courage both to himself and to his comrades. The world. but also in the deeper sense of most great fiction from Tom Jones and Pamela to The Scarlet Letter and Middlemarch. describable entity but a complex of devices and techniques which differs in degree and kind from writer to writer and from novel to novel while still sharing certain general and therefore abstractable tendencies. one in which a girl from the provinces survives the storms and hazards of the city and gains great success because of her natural abilities. McTeague's is that of gold--the gold he works with as a dentist. When I say "the form of a naturalistic novel. accompanies the protagonist on his adventures. of course. I can examine only one--the naturalistic symbol-though I hope that it is a choice which usefully illustrates my principal observation about the form of the naturalistic novel. but the passage of time profits the bold and good hearted and leavens life with judgment if not with wisdom. and The Red Badge of Courage--there is a pervasive and striking symbol which. and in particular the 44 . the scarlet letter at last does its office. 2 Here. then.not merely in the superficial sense of the moral romance. may be a difficult place." I mean. and Dorothea and Ladislaw though not as fresh as they once were are also not as illusioned. But on this occasion. The major characteristic of the form of the naturalistic novel is that it no longer reflects this certainty about the value of experience but rather expresses a profound doubt or perplexity about what happens in the course of time. Tom wins his Sophia and Pamela her Mr. in short. In a book length study. in a sense. the gold mine that he discovers late in the novel. are three late nineteenth-century narratives that a reader bred on earlier fiction would expect to end with an effect of progressive development or change: a story in which an honest workingclass man begins to move into the lower middle class because of his occupation and because of an advantageous marriage. in which good characters were rewarded and evil ones punished. Eight years later. from his initial small dental supply to the gold tooth to Trina's gold coins to an entire mine. and evenings at the vaudeville theatre. Dreiser's skillful and evocative use of the rocking chair as a rhythmic symbol in several senses. Yet despite his gain of this symbol of wealth and therefore presumably of class and esteem. having run from the battlefield in terror. And Henry Fleming's is a wound. A major characteristic of each of these symbols is that it functions ironically within the structure of its novel. at the close of the novel. I do not wish to suggest that these symbols and the narratives in which they occur are entirely similar. whether her anticipated happiness be that of pleasure. a red badge of courage which testifies to his fellows that he is not the coward he fears he may be. in depth of implication. there is much difference in tone. his movement from midway in the novel is downward both socially and personally until he reaches his final condition of a pursued animal. and Crane's reliance on an intense verbal as well as structural irony when describing the effects of Henry's wound. it quickly begins to act upon others and eventually upon Henry as a sign of his honorable participation in battle. flashy men. or beauty. Carrie's symbol is that of the rocking chair in which she so often sits and muses about the happiness that she longs for. she is a famous New York musical comedy actress and has acquired all of these and more but she still rocks and dreams of a happiness which might be hers if only she could devote herself to the art of dramatic expression. Carrie looks out over the teeming streets on her first night in Chicago and rocks and dreams of a happiness which consists of smart clothes.gold tooth advertising sign which to him means success and prominence in his profession and therefore a confirmation of his shaky sense of personal and social sufficiency. McTeague acquires more and more gold. success. Yet the symbols perform parallel roles in their respective narratives in that they structure and inform our sense not only that human beings are flawed 45 . And Fleming. acquires his red badge by a blow from one of his own retreating comrades. and in literary success between Norris' arbitrary and often fulsome gold symbolism. Obviously. But when his red badge of ignominy is divorced from its source. it is necessary to qualify a view which maintains that its major impact is that of the inefficacy of time. But the form of the naturalistic novel begins to create an effect of uncertainty. we are more or less instructed and elevated by our experience of their imagined worlds. or judge human nature. and Fleming are in a sense motionless in time. richness. McTeague returns to the mountains of his youth and stands dumb and brute-like before their primeval enmity. is to reverse or heavily qualify this expectation. as is suggested by its symbolic structure. instruct. For while the naturalistic novel does 46 . and direction--with a sense. about whether anything can be gained or learned from experience--indeed. The form of the naturalistic novel therefore engages us in a somewhat different aesthetic experience than does the form of an archetypal eighteenth or nineteenth-century novel. that both internal and external experience has a kind of describable weight and value. Carrie. Carrie still rocks and dreams of a happiness she is never to gain. But the effect of the naturalistic novel. That deeply gratifying sense of knowing so well the characters of a novel that we are unwilling to part from them at the close of the book is one of the principal effects of a fiction in which the confident moral vision of the writer has encouraged him to depict life with fullness. They have moved through experience but still only dimly comprehend it and themselves. If the naturalistic novel is to be properly understood. and thus their journeys through time are essentially circular journeys which return them to where they began. in short. For what do the massively ironic symbols of McTeague's gold. and Fleming's wound tell us but that life is a sliding or drifting rather than a march and that the ultimate direction and possible worth of experience are unfathomable. of wonder if experience has any meaning aside from the existential value of a collision with phenomena. however. Whatever the great range of theme and effect of earlier novels. and Fleming is again poised between gratuitous selfassurance and half-concealed doubt. Carrie's rocking chair. One of the principal corollaries of a progressive view of time is the belief that man has the capacity to interact meaningfully with his world and to benefit from this interaction.and ineffectual but also that experience itself does not guide. of doubt and perplexity. McTeague. his first encounter with life in all its awesome complexity--and is undismayed by the experience. some of the most distinctive qualities of the fiction of Norris. we can see. feeling mind and the inability of experience to supply a meaningful answer to the question which is human need. and Crane are in the mainstream of the nineteenth- century novel--the full documentation of Norris and Dreiser. shifting world. it would be useful to look forward to the modern novel in order to clarify the significant connection between the fumbling and tentative efforts of the naturalists to reflect through form a new vision of experience and the conscious and sophisticated formalistic experiments by many twentieth-century novelists which have been directed toward achieving a similar end. Dreiser. still continues to seek the meaning she calls happiness. And it exists faintly in the recollection we bring to McTeague's fate of his earlier responsiveness to the promise of Trina's sensuality and to the minor pleasures of middle class domesticity. in that it represents the static reality of his goal or quest in an uncertain. it also affirms the significance and worth of the skeptical or seeking temperament. and the McTeague who stands clutching his gold in the empty desert represent both the pathetic and perhaps tragic worth of the seeking. First. who. of the character who continues to look for meaning in experience even though there probably is no meaning. This quality appears most clearly in Dreiser's portrayal of Carrie. Obviously. The naturalistic symbol thus accrues to the protagonist a vital ambivalence. It is present in a more tenuous form in the fact that Henry has survived his first battle--that is. and the arch cleverness of Crane's narrative voice at its worst. one of the basic qualities of Joyce's fiction is his demonstration that "the ordinary is 47 . It is both a sign of his identity. and it is a sign of the impossiblity of fulfilling goals or of discovering meaning in a world of this kind. the Fleming who is proud of his red badge. for example. So the Carrie who rocks. how the naturalistic novel stands on the threshold of the modern novel. Yet by again concentrating on the naturalistic symbol. as Richard Ellmann reminds us. I think. Since I have been discussing the naturalistic novel in relation to some basic changes in the form of fiction. whatever the triviality of her earlier quest or the fatuousness of her final vision.reflect a vast skepticism about the conventional attributes of experience. The naturalistic novel thus reflects our doubts about conventional notions of character and experience while continuing to affirm through its symbolism both the sanctity of the self and the bedrock emotional reality of our basic physical nature and acts. is still naively self- deceptive. despite his wound. and because Fleming." that the movement of two men through a commonplace June day in Dublin contains a universe of emotional force and moral implication. I can perhaps now suggest. novelists such as Joyce and Virginia Woolf and Faulkner were to discover even more innovative and radical ways to represent through form the insignificance of the forward movement of time in comparison to the timelessness which is the union of a character and his past. and superficial head wound are also commonplace. Soon. the ironic symbolic structure of the naturalistic novel anticipates the absence in much modern serial art of a progressive and developmental notion of time. that the temporal world outside the self is often treacherous and always apparent. the 48 . though this universe may be expressed by such symbolic acts as those of masturbation and defecation. rocking chair.the extraordinary. even tawdry objects and events which symbolize complex and elemental emotions of pride. desire. we realize that time in the shape of experience has been less useful for these characters than it had been for a Dorothea Brooke or a Hester. the late nineteenth-century naturalistic novel anticipates both the startling. convention-destroying concreteness and the profound solipsism of much modern art. and fear. Second. The influence of Darwinism and French fiction. after having glanced both backwards and forwards. seeking. that only the questioning. The gold tooth. Because Carrie is still rocking. because McTeague has returned to his original animal state (original both to him and to his species). in the context of a fully depicted concrete world. At this point we can usefully return to Cady and those other critics who have approached naturalism primarily in relation to its origin and ideas and can note the value of this approach once the stylistic distinctiveness and direction of the naturalistic novel have been established. timeless self is real. that the distinctiveness of the form of the naturalistic novel lies in the attempt of that form to persuade us. indeed. Put in terms of the history of art. We neglect at our peril the fact that Moby Dick.notion that man is a brute and life a struggle. and we are also in danger. it is as deeply rooted. During its early years the movement was associated with Continental licentiousness and impiety and was regarded as a literature foreign to American values and interests. and in post-Civil War industrial expansion. The critic will examine the sources of naturalism in late nineteenth-century scientism. and Theodore Dreiser were often muddled in their thinking and inept in their fiction. when we neglect the equally simple observation that most late nineteenth-century naturalistic novels are about people who seem to be going nowhere. But he will also note that Stephen Crane. Frank Norris." a reviewer of McTeague cried in 1899. American Literary Naturalism: Dreiser AMERICAN LITERARY NATURALISM has almost always been viewed with hostility. or the unconscious stumbling of a generation toward a different kind of fictional form. is a story of a whale hunt. "We must stamp out this breed of Norrises. He will note that to a generation of American writers coming of age in the 1890s the mechanistic and materialistic foundations of contemporary science appeared to be confirmed by American social conditions and to have been successfully applied to the writing of fiction by Zola. In our own time. the overt beliefs and influences of the age. critically speaking. We need only realize that for this particular moment in literary history we have been neglecting the last as a way of controlling and shaping our awareness of the first two. We need not ask which came first or which was predominant-the temperament. in Zola. whatever else it may be. A typical discussion of the movement is frequently along the following lines. though antagonism to naturalism is expressed more obliquely. and he will attribute these failures to their unfortunate absorption of 49 . the belief that we are but ciphers in either a cosmic storm or a chemical process--this kind of awareness about what the naturalists absorbed and believed can help clarify our understanding of the themes which preoccupied individual naturalists in the muddy pool which is the coming together of a particular temperament and a historical moment. such as Dreiser and Farrell. One of the clearest is that many critics find naturalistic belief morally repugnant. but his account of their work will still be governed by the assumption that naturalism is a regrettable strain in modern American literary history. the more recent critic is apt to express his hostility indirectly by claiming that naturalistic novelists frequently violate the deterministic creed which supposedly informs their work and are therefore inconsistent or incoherent naturalists. Farrell. On one hand. are almost always praised for qualities which are distinct from their naturalism. He will remark that scientism has been replaced by Marxism and that the thinking of this generation of naturalists is not so much confused as doctrinaire. But whereas earlier critics stated openly their view that naturalism was invalid because man was as much a creature of divine spirit as animal substance. and (closer to our own time) Saul Bellow is almost always dismissed as an irrelevant and distracting characteristic of their work. the underlying metaphor in most accounts of American fiction is that naturalism is a kind of taint or discoloration. It is the rare work of fiction of any time in which threads of free will and determinism do not interweave in a complex pattern that can be called 50 . This continuing antagonism to naturalism has several root causes. John Steinbeck.naturalistic attitudes and beliefs. Our typical critic will then discover a second major flowering of naturalism in the fiction of James T. Faulkner. there seems little doubt that many critics delight in seeking out the philosophically inadequate in naturalistic fiction because man is frequently portrayed in this fiction as irredeemably weak and deluded and yet as not responsible for his condition. We are thus told that Dreiser's greatness is not in his naturalism and that he is most of all an artist when not a philosopher. And so the obvious and powerful thread of naturalism in such major figures as Hemingway. this concern with philosophical consistency derives from the naturalist writer's interest in ideas and is therefore a justifiable critical interest. without which the writer would be more of an artist and through which the critic must penetrate if he is to discover the essential nature and worth of the writer. and John Dos Passos in the 1930s. Indeed. So those writers who most clearly appear to be naturalists. On the other. " and Lionel Trilling 's "Reality in America"--have as an underlying motive a desire to purge American literature and its historiography of an infatuation with an alien and destructive political ideal. it was inevitable that naturalistic fiction of the 1930s would be found wanting because the naturalists of that decade. on strictly logical grounds man either has free will or he does not. Stephen Crane is the only naturalistic writer whose fiction satisfies these expectations. Melville. which suggests that it is the weighting of this inconsistency toward an amoral determinism--not its mere presence--that is at stake. the product of a romantic imagination--and they have found principally in the work of Hawthorne. and his work is generally held to be uncharacteristic of the non-artistry of a movement more adequately represented by Dreiser. A final reason for the antagonism toward naturalistic fiction is that several generations of academic critics have been attracted by an increasingly refined view of the aesthetic complexity of fiction. it was now seen. Faulkner. had so naively embraced some form of communist belief.Philip Rahv's "Notes on the Decline of American Naturalism. They have believed that a novel must above all be organic--that is. and to a lesser extent James. Another source of the hostility of modern critics to the naturalistic novel lies in recent American political history. that enlargement of metaphor into symbol and that interplay of irony and ambivalence which bring fiction close to the complex indirection of a metaphysical lyric. I do not wish to suggest by this brief survey of the critical biases which have led to the inadequate examination of American naturalism 51 . but in the 1930s the movement was aligned with the left wing in American politics and often specifically with the Communist Party. In the revulsion against the Party which swept the literary community during the 1940s and 1950s. Yet it is principally the naturalistic novel which is damned for this quality." Malcolm Cowley's "A Natural History of American Naturalism.incoherent or inconsistent. American naturalism of the 1890s was largely apolitical. The most influential critical discussions of American naturalism during the 1940s and 1950s-. His parents were of Catholic. he believed. As a young man Dreiser sought the success and position which his parents had lacked and also shed the religious and moral beliefs which. and man was not the favored creature of divine guidance but an insignificant unit in a universe of natural forces. so completely is Dreiser as thinker and writer identified with the movement in America. so we are coming to realize that a generation of American critics has approached American literary naturalism with beliefs about man and art which have frequently distorted rather than cast light upon the object before them. I want to see how his naturalistic predispositions work in his fiction and whether or not they work successfully. Dreiser was born an outsider. Rather. initially and briefly. he believed. more fully. indeed. to test the example of Dreiser--to note. But just as we have long known that the mind- set of an early nineteenth-century critic would little prepare him to come to grips with the essential nature and form of a romantic poem. and then. to examine some of the naturalistic elements in his fiction. therefore. I do not wish to consider his naturalism as an unfortunate excrescence. he found his deepest responses to life confirmed by his reading of Herbert Spencer and Balzac. Theodore Dreiser is the author whose work and career most fulfill the received notion of American naturalism. those characteristics of his career and work which lead us to describe him as a naturalist. were the 52 . it is often difficult to determine the demarcation between literary history and critical biography in general discussions of American naturalism. While a young reporter in Pittsburgh in the early 1890s. There were. I do not wish to undertake this test with the assumption that Dreiser's fiction is confused in theme and form because he is not a consistent naturalist or that his work is best when he is least naturalistic. German- speaking immigrant stock and throughout Dreiser's youth the large family was agonizingly poor. had appeared to shackle them. In short. whether biological or social. It would be instructive. no discernible supernatural agencies in life. Although these forces.that there are not naturalistic novels which are muddled in conception and inept in execution. But unlike so much of the criticism of naturalism which I have been describing. Like many of his generation." that is.scientific detachment yet overindulges in personal philosophical disquisitions. including the form of his fiction."8 But though Hurstwood is swept away by these forces. but the lives of the immigrant foundry workers-- to say nothing of the lives of Dreiser's own errant sisters and brothers- -appeared dwarfed and ephemeral compared with the grinding and impersonal power of a vast economic system and a great city. of naturalism itself. Here. yet his seeming 53 . All the major paradoxes are present: his identification with the "outsider. by extension. in brief. they often crushed the individual within their mechanistic processes. and his deep response to a major European novelist. his acceptance of a "scientific" mechanistic theory of natural law as a substitute for traditional views of individual insight and moral responsibility. yet his affirmation of many of these traditional views. he attempts to write a "fine" style but produces journalistic cliché and awkwardness. as a figure of "emotional greatness. untutored man is but a wisp in the wind. and though Carrie's career is that of a storm-tossed ship. was exciting and alluring. Yet the city itself.source of racial progress. So accompanying Dreiser's endorsement of an amoral determinism there exists a disconcerting affirmation of the traditionally elevating in life-- of Carrie. of imaginative power. for example. In Sister Carrie Dreiser was to write. Carrie survives and indeed grows in understanding by the close of the novel. Dreiser found that the observed realities of American society supported this theory of existence. at the two poles of his career and work is the infamous intellectual muddle of Dreiser and. yet his lifelong worship of "success"." which was to lead to a contemptuous view of the mainstream of middle class American life. demonstrated. "Among the forces which sweep and play throughout the universe. And this muddle appears to be matched by a corresponding lack of control and firmness in fictional technique. Dreiser documents his social scene with a pseudo. The mills and libraries of Pittsburgh were evidence of progress. as Balzac had amply. So in most important ways Dreiser fulfills the conventional definition of the American naturalist. and not all were crushed who sought to gain its wonders. Forty-five years after Sister Carrie Dreiser joined the Communist Party while celebrating in his last two novels the intuitive mysticism at the heart of Quaker and Hindu belief. JennieGerhardt Gerhardt and An American Tragedy.neglect of style and form. Kane. successful. Lester marries Letty Gerald. She and Kane are attracted to each other by a powerful natural "affinity" and they live together contentedly for several years. Jennie is seduced first by Senator Brander. Vesta. I don't know whether you see what I'm driving at. Jennie Gerhardt is about a girl from a poor family who has several sexual affairs with men of higher station but who emerges from her adventures not only unsullied but also elevated in character and insight. a woman of his own class. 54 . But I can pursue the vital naturalistic theme of mechanistic determinism in two of his principal novels. Lester tells her "it isn't myself that's important in this transaction [that is. Deeply depressed by Vesta's death and by his realization that he erred in leaving Jennie. One of the major scenes in Jennie Gerhardt is Lester's visit to Jennie after the death of Vesta. The novel differs from Sister Carrie primarily in Dreiser's characterization of Jennie and of Lester Kane. and contemplative figure than Hurstwood. life itself] apparently. soon after the publication of Sister Carrie. Like Sister Carrie. though he did not complete it until late 1910. by whom she has a child. and thereby reach toward at least a modest understanding of the example of Dreiser. and then by Lester Kane. Dreiser began Jennie Gerhardt in early 1901. He wrote most of the novel during the next two years. Eventually they part. the individual doesn't count much in the situation. and Jennie suffers the death of both her father and Vesta. But because Lester is gradually forced to accept that a permanent union with Jennie would adversely affect his business career and the comfortable certainties of his social and family life. I cannot hope to discuss these major characteristics of Dreiser as a naturalist as each appears in his eight novels. In the course of the novel. but all of us are more or less pawns. the principal man in Jennie's life. they do not marry. at least on the surface. and Jennie differs from Carrie in that she is a warm and generous giver rather than a taker. is a more powerful. " This famous pronouncement. supernatural. requires careful analysis both in its immediate context and in relation to the novel as a whole if it is to be properly understood. it is a disguised apology to Jennie for his failure to marry her when he could have done so. But it is also a powerful means of characterizing Lester. supernatural counterpart. which has supplied several generations of literary historians with a ubiquitous image for the philosophical center of American naturalism. or social avatar. Earlier he had attributed his difficulties merely to bad luck. Whatever the general truth of Lester's words. 55 .(373-74) Lester's speculative statement that men are but pawns in the control of circumstances is thus in part an explanation and a defense of his own conduct. But the decisionless flow of time contained an impetus of events which constituted an implicit and irreversible decision. and when Lester at last awoke to the fact that his life had been decided for him. he has elevated and generalized "fate" into a specific force which is at once social. or. But by the time he and Jennie separate. the "Zeitgeist" as the Germans term it. they represent a personal truth. and (as far as he is concerned) malevolent: It was only when the storms set in and the winds of adversity blew and he found himself facing the armed forces of convention that he realized he might be mistaken as to the value of his personality. at least. that he was wrong. and the organization of society began to show itself to him as something based on possibly a spiritual.We're moved about like chessmen by circumstances over which we have no control. His pawn image expresses both his sense of ineffectuality in the face of the central dilemma of his life and a covert supernaturalism which has characterized his thought throughout the novel despite his overt freethinking. Throughout his life he had lived for the moment and had postponed making decisions about the direction of his life. In particular. The race spirit. manifested itself as something having a system in charge. he bitterly and angrily blamed fate. that his private desires and opinions were as nothing in the face of a public conviction. composed as he was of self-organizing cells. Lester is able to give this view of life an appropriate philosophical framework. to organize itself into bodies. and birds. the world of traffic below holding his attention. Dreiser tells us. had early learned to combine itself with others. "appear to be as inexorable in their workings as the laws of gravitation and expansion. his belief that men are pawns involves more than a rationalization of his own indecisiveness and ineffectuality. There had started on its way in the form of evolution a minute cellular organism which had apparently reproduced itself by division.Because Lester is a perceptive and on the whole an honest figure. concerned only with the general result. Man. In distant ages a queer thing had come to pass. the counter streams of hurrying pedestrians. from their initial meeting within the convention of a seduction--a convention which appeared to preclude marriage--to the later opposition of Lester's personal. and social worlds to the continuation of the relationship. strange forms offish." he wrote. In the years that pass after Vesta's death. There is a drift to society as a whole which pushes us on in a certain direction. Lester had "looked down into Dearborn Street. his response to life. business. on his part. echoed Lester's attribution of superhuman powers to social force. animals. The pressure of circumstances on Lester in his relationship with Jennie has indeed been intense. becomes "decidedly critical": He could not make out what it was all about. So shadows march in a dream" (400). seemed like a puzzle. In a passage cut from Chapter XL of the final holograph of the novel. and had finally learned to organize itself into man. was pushing himself 56 . Dreiser himself. Lester therefore reflects a persistent strain in Dreiser's thought. The great mass of trucks and vehicles. The scene effectively images both Lester's and Dreiser's belief that life is a helter-skelter of activity without meaning either for its observers or for the "shadows" who give it motion. as narrator. "The conventions in their way. Before making his pawn speech to Jennie." In his final position as one deeply puzzled by the insignificance of the individual. careless of the individual. His belief also aptly characterizes social reality as that reality has been dramatized in the novel. As a man aware of the direction of modern thought. whether he would or no. is his equal in the "bigness" of her responsiveness to the underlying reality of life. This evaluation. Jennie. Why? Heaven only knew. physics." apparently guided by some unknowable power. Instead there was the feeling that the world moved in some strange. Truly it was. Why should he complain. and she discovers not only puzzlement and frustration in life but also an ineradicable beauty. Dreiser writes. Nature was so beautiful! If at times life seemed cruel. yet this beauty still persisted. Apparently no one knew clearly what it was all about. why specu late?--the world was going steadily forward of its own volition. Was it all blind chance or was there some guiding intelligence--a God? Almost in spite of herself she felt that there must be something--a higher power which produced all the beautiful things--the flowers. the trees. (405) Jennie and Lester's complementary views of life represent Dreiser's own permanent unresolved conception of the paradox of existence. however.. Dreiser therefore follows his comments on Lester's critical outlook with an account of Jennie's final evaluation of life.. some that it was millions of years old. though not Lester's equal in formal knowledge or in experience. and sociology were not fixed departments in her brain as they were in Lester's and Letty's. had never grasped the nature and character of specialized knowledge. chemistry. why worry. Individuals counted for little in this process. The thought comforted her. because of its source and its strategic location. botany. (404-05) It must not be assumed. she fed upon it in her hours of secret loneliness.forward into comfort and different aspects of existence by means of union and organization with other men. the stars. Some believed that the world had been made six thousand years before. has significance equal to Lester's beliefs. the grass. For Jennie. History. People were born and died. that Lester's pessimistic response to the "puzzle" of man's role in a mechanistic world is Dreiser's principal and only philosophical theme in Jennie Gerhardt. unstable way. geology.. but individuals of different 57 . To both figures the world "was going steadily forward of its own volition. It has not been as fully realized that he held the two positions simultaneously as well as consecutively and that he gave each position equal weight and dramatic expression in Jennie Gerhardt without resolving their "discrepancy. to put the matter another way. I am rather saying that the philosophy and the fiction are one and inseparable. It has frequently been noted that Dreiser himself held both views at different stages of his career--that he stressed a cruelly indifferent mechanistic universe in Hey Rub-a-Dub- Dub (1920) and a mechanistic world of beauty in The Bulwark ( 1946). It is this unity of understanding and of purpose which gives Dreiser's novels their power. of a temperament which might find an element of truth in both. he uses the ideas of his own time as living vehicles to express the 58 ." For to Dreiser there was no true discrepancy.temperaments might respond to the mechanism of life in different ways. Lester's belief in one kind of mechanistic philosophy and Jennie's in another are less significant fictionally than the depiction of Jennie as a woman of feeling and of Lester as a man of speculative indecision. at his best. The naturalistic "philosophy" of deterministic mechanism in Dreiser's novels is therefore usually secondary. As a late nineteenthcentury novelist. Or. as in his own case. Dreiser's infamous philosophical inconsistency is thus frequently a product of his belief that life is a "puzzle" to which one can respond in different ways. there was only the reality of distinctive temperaments which might find truth in each position or. But he did not do so. another might affirm the beauty which was inseparable from the inexplicable mystery of life. in a way which can be distinguished from his absorption of an understanding of character and of experience in general. like most major artists. At his most successful. depending on one's makeup and experience. Dreiser absorbed and used naturalistic ideas. Dreiser embodies in his novels the permanent in life not despite the ideas of his own time but because. One kind of temperament might be bitter and despairing. But it should also be clear that in attributing a secondary fictional role to the mechanistic center of Jennie Gerhardt I am not saying that the philosophy muddles the novel or that the novel is successful for reasons other than the philosophy. to the role of the concept as a metaphor of life against which various temperaments can define themselves. within the fictional dynamics of each novel. his longing for Hortense. Dreiser in this opening section of the novel is indeed seeking to introduce the deterministic theme that a young man's nature and early experience can solidify into an inflexible quality of mind which will lead to his destruction." Such major events of this portion of the novel as Clyde's sister's pregnancy. Yet once said this observation is as useless to criticism as the equally true statement that King Lear is about the failure and triumph of love. We discover that Clyde is a sensitive youth who longs for the material and sensual pleasures of life but lacks the training. and the automobile accident which concludes the book have no source in Gillette's life.permanent in man's character and in man's vision of his condition and fate. it offered only a few hints about Gillette's experiences before his arrival in that city. we are offered Clyde's weak and fuzzy-minded father and coldly moralistic mother. Ergo: weakness and desire on the one hand and irresistible attraction yet insurmountable barriers on the other will resolve themselves into an American tragedy. and guile necessary to gain them. So. Thus. Book One of An American Tragedy. which deals with Clyde's early life in Kansas City. in Book One. Most students of American literature are aware that Dreiser derived the central plot and much of the detail of An American Tragedy from the Chester Gillette-Grace Brown murder case of 1906. For Dreiser in Book One of An American Tragedy is not a simple: and simple-minded naturalist applying a philosophical theory to documentary material but rather a subtle 59 . Because Dreiser in Book One is "inventing" a background for Clyde it is possible to view this section of the novel as the application to fiction of a simplistic deterministic ethic in which the author crudely manufactures hereditary and environmental conditions that will irrevocably propel the protagonist toward his fate. strength. his job at the Green- Davidson Hotel. is in a sense "invented. Less commonly known is that although Dreiser's principal source--the reports of Gillette's trial in the New York World--presented him with a wealth of detail about Gillette's life in Cortland (the Lycurgus of the novel) leading up to the murder of Grace Brown. He would work and save his money and be somebody. lively talk. Clyde at this moment of insight at the soda fountain is truly converted. for he has merely shifted the nebulous and misdirected longings of his family from the unworldly to the worldly. and thus Clyde's dominant impulse from early boyhood is to escape." He has thus not really escaped from his parents." (I. Decidedly this simple and yet idyllic compound of the commonplace had all the luster and wonder of a spiritual transfiguration. 26) Dreiser's summary of Clyde's response to the lively worldliness of the soda fountain introduces a theme. Clyde's desire for "beauty and pleasure" in Book One is in direct conflict with his parents' religious beliefs and activities. offers a deeply satisfying alternative to the drab religiosity of Clyde's boyhood. This position. 60 . Clyde's need--his thirst--has the power to transform "spiritually" the tawdry and superficial world of the drugstore into the wondrous and exalted. and absolute faith of his parents' enthusiasm and belief. with its accompanying "marvels" of girls. Clyde's vision of a "paradise" below is a "true mirage. He still has the naïveté.fictional craftsman creating out of the imagined concrete details of a life an evocative image of the complex texture of that life. He recognizes the appeal of this new world "in a revealing flash": "You bet he would get out of that now. And because he is. blindness. the true mirage of the lost and thirsting and seeking victim of the desert. and "snappy" dressing. which pervades the entire novel. and its imagery and tone. At fifteen he makes his first major break from his parents' inhospitable mission existence and toward the life he desires when he gets a job as assistant clerk at a drugstore soda fountain. So frequent and compelling is Dreiser's use of "dream" in connection with Clyde's longing that we sometimes fail to realize that his desires also have a basically religious context in which his "dream" is for a "paradise" of wealth and position ruled by a "goddess" of love. and his initiation into life at the soda fountain and later at the GreenDavidson is no true initiation. It like their "cloudy romance" of a heaven above. He has rejected the religion of his parents only to find a different kind of heaven to which he pledges his soul with all the fervor and completeness of his parents' be lief. warmth. So deep and powerful is Clyde's reaction to its beauty and pleasure--to its moral freedom. "And there was music always--from somewhere" (I. The Green-Davidson to Clyde is softness. it has a luxuriousness which he associates with sensuality and position--that is. and richness. trickery. cannot help responding to this aspect of sex with "fascination" despite his fears and anxieties. black velvet. a true believer. with all that is desirable in life: "The soft brown carpet under his feet. Clyde thus views the hotel both as "a realization of paradise" and as a miraculous gift from Aladdin's lamp. and the hotel offers many instances of lascivious parties on the one hand and young girls deserted by their seducers on the other. the soft. To Clyde.like them. and shower of tips--that he conceives of the hotel as a youth does his first love. But the hotel has a harsh and cruel sexuality in addition to its soft. material splendor. he does not learn from experience and he does not change.'" he tells her. Both Clyde's unconscious need and his overt mode of fulfillment join in his response to Hortense. a response which at once reflects the religiosity of its sexual attractions and their embodiment in a powerful social form. cream-tinted walls. Clyde unconsciously desires "softness" and later finds 61 . the snow-white bowl lights set in the ceiling--all seemed to him parts of a perfection and a social superiority which was almost unbelievable" (I. 33). but the overt sexuality which he in fact encounters is that of hardness. who themselves frequent whores. The Green-Davidson has both an intrinsic and an extrinsic sexuality. two images of fulfillment which. The sexual reality of the hotel is thus profoundly ambivalent. 112). the hotel is "so glorious an institution" (I. and deceit--of use and discarding. appropriately constitute the center of his dream life. warm and "romantic" sensuality. Older women and homosexuals prey on the bellhops. 42). because of his repressed sexuality. in their "spiritualizing" of his desires. Clyde longs above all for the "romance" of sex and for warmth and a sense of union. Clyde's job as a bellhop at the Green-Davidson is both an extension and an intensification of his conversion experience at the soda fountain.' He was thinking of an alcove in the Green-Davidson hung with black velvet" (I. "'Your eyes are just like soft. Clyde. "'They're wonderful. 33). So he accepts the hierarchy of power present in the elaborate system of sharing tips which functions in the hotel. institution" also represents his acceptance of the hotel as a microcosm of social reality. as in Jennie Gerhardt. dishonesty.. emotional. he assumes that the ethics of social advance and monetary gain are also those of love. yet weak and directionless--interacts with a distinctive social setting which supplies that temperament with both its specific goals and its operative ethic. once more. But. and sexual deceit and cruelty are the ways in which one gains what one desires and that these can and should be applied to his relationship with Roberta. as in Jennie Gerhardt. the naturalism and the fictional strength are inseparable. roleplaying.. So he quickly learns that to get ahead in the world--that is. For though Hortense is properly associated in his mind with the Green-Davidson because of their similar sexual "hardness. So he realizes that he must deceive his parents about his earnings if he is to have free use of the large sums available to him as an eager novice in this institution. sensitive. Again. but he is also powerfully drawn by the "hardness" of wealth and sexual power which he is to find in Sondra and which he first encounters at the Green-Davidson. when in Lycurgus he aspires to the grandeur of Sondra and her set. to ingratiate himself with his superiors and to earn large tips--he must adopt various roles. Thus. Thus he endows Hortense with an image of warm softness which reflects his muddled awareness of his needs." she is incorrectly associated with an image of softness and warmth. there is a naturalistic center to this fictional excellence.it in Roberta. The naturalism is not an obstacle to the 62 . The major point to be made about Dreiser's rendering of the Green- Davidson Hotel as an important experience in Clyde's life is that we respond to his account not as an exercise in determinism but as a subtle dramatization of the ways in which a distinctive temperament-- eager. Clyde's belief that the Green-Davidson is a "glorious. his actions are conditioned by an ethic derived from the Green- Davidson--that hypocrisy. It is correct to say that Clyde's life is determined by his heredity and environment. And because the world of the Green-Davidson--both within the hotel and as hotel life extends out into Clyde's relations with the other bellhops and with Hortense--also contains Clyde's introduction into sexual desire and sexual warfare. 63 . One of the major conventions in the study of American naturalism is that naturalistic belief is both objectionable in its own right and incompatible with fictional quality.excellence but the motive thrust and center of the bed-rock fictional portrayal of how people interact with their worlds and why they are what they are. But the example of Dreiser reveals that the strength often found in a naturalistic novel rests in the writer's commitment to the distinctive form of his naturalistic beliefs and in his ability to transform these beliefs into acceptable character and event. To sum up. We are moved by the story of Jennie and Lester and by the account of Clyde's career not because they are independent of Dreiser's deepest beliefs but rather because they are successful narratives of man's impotence in the face of circumstances by a writer whose creative imagination was all of a piece. we will not profit from the example of Dreiser. Until we are willing to accept that the power of a naturalistic writer resides in his naturalism. But it is also necessary to indicate that the early American naturalists were very much nineteenth-century Americans and that much in their work and ideas which makes them square pegs in the round hole of such a "standard" definition of naturalism as "pessimistic determinism" may be caused by their absorption of nineteenth-century American ideas. What is less certain. These two writers are often discussed as naturalists and the period in which they flourished is almost always considered primarily as a segment of the European naturalistic movement and its influence and manifestation in America. It is true. is the particular nature of the American experience and mind and of their effect upon American literature. a pervasive and widespread faith in the validity of the individual experience and mind as a source of knowledge and a guide to action. to preface an examination of the American mind with a defense of the attempt. as did Bliss Perry in 1912. I would like to examine the nature and scope of romantic individualism in the critical ideas of Hamlin Garland and Stephen Crane. 64 . that this romantic individualism has never lacked criticism. of course. transcendentalism. however. But its tenacious strength in spite of frequently valid and forceful attack is itself an indication of the depth of the faith in the individual in American life. I wish to point out in addition--not that they were at heart Jeffersonians. Now usually accepted are the beliefs that the American experience has been unique and that it has resulted in both a unique intellectual consciousness known as the American mind and a unique literature. For though Garland and Crane are usually (and rightfully) considered to be among the earliest representatives of American literary naturalism. The Zolaesque experimental method is explained and the use of such "scientific" elements in literature as the force of heredity and environment is sketched. of course.Hamlin Garland and Stephen Crane: The Naturalist as Romantic Individualist MOST CRITICS of American literature no longer feel obliged. is pertinent and necessary. All this. whether it be ex pressed in Jeffersonian liberalism. or the literary revolt of the twenties. One of the most striking common denominators in otherwise often diverse interpretations of the American mind is that of romantic individualism--that is. Posnett's Comparative Literature he then combined these two ideas into an evolutionary critical system. by its statement and insistent restatement that American art. it changes" (77). M. William Dean Howells. not imitative. With the aid of H. It never decays. "and literature changes with it. Garland formulated a conception of literature as a dynamic phenomenon closely related to the physical and social evolutionary progress from incoherent homogeneity to coherent heterogeneity. or anticipators of the twenties--but rather that they too. and Thomas Sergeant Perry. Hamlin Garland noted the twofold purpose of the work: "to weaken the hold of conventionalism upon the youthful artist" and "to be constructive. In this introduction to Crumbling Idols. M.transcendentalists. Posnett. must be original and creative. "The Evolution of American Thought."2 Both of these purposes were in trinsically linked to the evolutionary interpretation of literature Garland had derived during his early years in Boston. During those years ( 1884-87) he had immersed himself first in the works of Taine and Herbert Spencer and later in those of Edward Dowden. the idea that art must reflect an ever-changing world--Garland first stated in an unpublished series of lectures. since he alone worked in close enough detail with an area he knew intimately. were part of the broad current which is the stream of American romantic individualism. H." he wrote. From Spencer. each in his own way. Literature was required to keep pace with evolutionary progress by mirroring the intense social and individual differences which the progress from homogeneity to heterogeneity had caused. The relativist position in artistic creation and criticism was that art is not a matter of the imitation or use of the great works or ideas of the past. From Taine he accepted a belief that literature was conditioned by time and place. but that "life is the model. consciously and unconsciously. He concluded that the local colorist was the only writer capable of capturing contemporary social and individual complexity. This "dynamic concept of art"--that is. "Life is always changing." 65 . the source of much of his thought." and repeated again and again in Crumbling Idols. to be enduring and worthy. " Véron's critical ideas appealed to Garland because they were in a number of ways parallel to those he himself had just formulated. the pragmatists--also founding their system upon evolutionary thought--conceived of ideas.Garland. It entered into all I thought and spoke and read for many years after it fell into my hands about 1886. And just as William James's pragmatism sets up a pluralistic universe in which the individual is the source of truth." But it should be emphasized that Véron's impressionism was restricted and controlled by his insistence that art be anchored in observed fact: "TRUTH and PERSONALITY: These are the alpha and omega of art formulas. Véron required a form of impressionism. since evolution "must give birth to new forms of art appropriate to the new forms of civilization. He too claimed to be using science as the basis for his study." he wrote. so Garland conceived of artistic truth as pluralistic and as centered in the individual artist. for "the determinant and essential constituent of art." 66 . 3 Just as ideas were not absolute because they must work in the world and the world is ever changing. then. and the personality of the artist. so art has no absolutes. "There are but three ways open to art. the realistic imitation of actual things. was much in step with the contemporary ideas which had influenced Garland. Véron argued that only the last deserved the name. who was also the author of La supériorité des arts modernes sur les arts anciens. truth as to facts. In his opposition to the French Academy." Of these three forms of art. conceived of literature as his contemporaries in American philosophy. but must reflect and interpret an ever-changing world by means of new material and new forms. "the imitation of previous forms of art. the manifestation of individual impressions. In his extensively marked and annotated copy of Véron he wrote on the first page of the Introduction: "This book influenced me more than any other work on art." But whereas Garland had required that local color be the means by which the artist keep pace with evolution. Véron. is the personality of the artist. and he too demanded that the artist deal with life about him. Garland derived this emphasis on impressionistic artistic truth from his reading of Véron's Aesthetics shortly after he had formulated his evolutionary critical system. Here was a system which shared two characteristics of Garland's own belief. since an individual response to observed fact was but another way. His first care must be to present his own concept. of stating the idea of local color and all its implications for American literature. The impressionist or veritist reflecting the life around him cannot help being a local colorist. Garland described Enneking's artistic principles in terms of Véron's three kinds of art. As truth is relative in time because of evolutionary change. For the only literature which could reflect truthfully the life of a particular time and place was that produced by the individual artist. Garland wrote in Crumbling Idols: Art. He had then turned to nature in an attempt to depict it "absolutely as it was." (35) But as Garland pointed out in Crumbling Idols. unshackled by rules and conventions. "The sun of truth strikes each part of the earth at a little different angle" (22). and for which you care most." Garland noted. By so doing you will be true to yourself. in noting a talk with his artist friend John Enneking in early 1887. the increased social complexity and heightened individuality which have resulted from evolutionary progress. the essence of veritism: "Write of those things of which you know most. and it required that this be done through the expression of individual personality. Enneking had initially been "conventional" and had "sought the ideal. I must insist. So. for example. is an individual thing. to Garland.--the question of one man facing certain facts and telling his individual relations to them. true to your locality. he gives us the natural as it affects him. I believe. the most important product of evolutionary progress from homogeneity to heterogeneity." His third and final stage was comparable to Véron's personal impression of observed fact. This is. working in close harmony to that life. Garland was sufficiently impressed by Véron's ideas to begin using them almost immediately. since by his reference to 67 ." Garland had little difficulty placing Véron within his evolutionary critical system. It stressed the necessity for art to represent change. so it is relative in place owing to the product of that change. That is. and true to your time. "He now paints the effect of a scene. nature he must needs represent the uniqueness of his particular area. Crumbling Idols embodies a coherent aesthetic system. while "This theory of the veritist is. a statement of his passion for truth and for individual expression" (21). In an early article in Ibsen. Far from being the awkward yawp of a confused naturalist (as it usually has been considered). he defined the two in almost exactly similar terms. and the term veritist soon received the impressionistic cast with which it is used in Crumbling Idols. And even Emerson and Whitman--those fountainheads of American radical individualism--would not have stated the doctrine of faith in the individual artist more vigorously than Garland at the close of Crumbling Idols: 68 . "true" art was primarily the product of an individual response to observed fact. impressionism as the artistic method advocated. He appears to have derived the coined word veritism as an antonym for effectism. after all. For example." and later in the same discussion he used the word veritist for the first time. Impressionism was "the statement of one's own individual perception of life and nature. and local color as the end product in the various arts. so Garland called upon the young writer of the West to interpret life for himself and cast off his subservience to the East. Throughout Crumbling Idols Garland used impressionism and veritism interchangeably. guided by devotion to truth" (50). Central to this system--and the emotional center of reference in all of Garland's thought-was the right and need of the individual to be free. The artist must be freed from past and present literary masters in order that he may perceive for himself the truth of his own locality and thereby keep literature in step with evolutionary progress. Valdés's term (popularized by Howells) for the sensational in literature. But for Garland. As Emerson had attempted to free the American scholar from that which prevented him from perceiving truth for himself and had called for men of letters to throw off the domination of Europe. In Crumbling Idols Garland stated an aesthetic system in which evolutionary ideas served as the intellectual foundation. Garland praised Ibsen's handling of character because it followed "the general principle of verity first and effect afterwards. but rather with the quality of mind and literary self- confidence which led him to that writing. but at first hand. as a literary "natural. not through the eyes of the dead. he is now thought." there has evolved a conception of him as a conscious and subtle craftsman and artist. but injustice to the future. All that Shakespeare knew of human life. despite its being out of joint with conventional morality. This complaint is no longer justified. and become creative. somewhat exaggeratedly to be sure. it appeared so. but not at second hand. as in Maggie ( 1893). O young man and woman of America! Stand erect! Face the future with a song on your lips and the light of a broader day in your eyes. to have innovated the "two main technical movements of modern fiction- -realism and symbolism. not through Shakespeare."13 A serious author who will knowingly shock his readers is an author confident of the correctness of his vision of life." My concern here. not in scorn. This is our day. (190-91) Until some twenty years ago it was customary to begin any consideration of Stephen Crane with an account of the critical neglect of his work. Cease trying to be correct. and a willingness to trust his imagination in dealing with material about which he knew little. as in The Red Badge of Courage ( 1895). To know Shakespeare is good. however. And an author who will--as Crane did in The Red Badge--trust his 69 . Turn your back on the past.Rise. with all possible courage. From the initial treat ment of Crane as an inexplicable genius.. please. you may know. to the end. for there has been in recent decades much critical interest in both Crane's biography and his work. He inscribed several copies of Maggie with the admonition that "It is inevitable that you will be greatly shocked by the book but continue. is not with the meaning or technique of Crane's writing. This self-confidence took two literary forms--a choice of material which would shock.. The past is not vital. The story of a prostitute who was both a product and a victim of her environment was perhaps not as contemporaneously shocking as it was once thought to be. a young and comparatively unread writer. To know your fellow men is better. From being considered as a bright but short-lived and uninfluential meteor in the literary firmament.. but to Crane. however. when Garland again gave a lecture series and Crane again reported shore news. Garland. This sense of debt was undoubtedly derived in part from Garland's and Howells's early aiding and championing of Crane. it would appear that these remarks would make little impression on a listener. Garland gave a lecture on Howells which Crane reported for the Tribune. In 1891. was an enthusiastic advocate of impressionism in painting and literature and was formulating and writing the essays which would comprise Crumbling Idols. Garland. A clue to the source of this doctrine lies in Crane's lifelong sense of debt toward Hamlin Garland and William Dean Howells. Crane reported Garland. But Crane not only heard them. In Crane's case. it appears. Howells.imaginative conception of war and of its effects on men is just as confident of the validity of his personal vision.'" On the surface. believed in '"the progress of ideals. Both Maggie and The Red Badge were written before Crane was twenty-three. from Crane's early adoption and use of a particular critical idea of Garland's and Howells's. he reported them. One reason for Crane's self-confidence suggests itself immediately. in discussing Howells's work and ideas. he spent the summer helping his brother report New Jersey shore news for the New York Tribune. he immediately became acquainted with Garland and spent some time with him at Avon that summer and the next.'" He therefore '"does not insist upon any special material. One of his assignments was to cover a series of "Lecture Studies in American Literature and Expressive Art" which Hamlin Garland was giving at the Avon-by-the-Sea Seaside Assembly. placed him squarely in his own evolutionary. But it also derived. impressionistic critical system. Moreover. at this time. In 1895 Crane inscribed a copy of The Red Badge to Howells as a token of the "veneration and gratitude of Stephen Crane for many 70 . but only that the novelist be true to himself and to things as he sees them. the selfconfidence of a youthful and temperamentally cocky personality was reinforced and given an explicit rhetoric by the acceptance of an impressionistic critical doctrine. On August 17. when Crane was nineteen and had as yet written little. the relative in art. entered the literary arena armed with a powerful weapon- -a belief in the primacy of his personal vision." About a year earlier he had written in a letter that in 1892 he had renounced the "clever school in literature" and had "developed all alone a little creed of art which I thought was a good one. his imaginative conception of war and its effects. for example. Later I discovered that my creed was identical with the one of Howells and Garland." Crane distinctly parallels these statements in several of his sparsely recorded critical remarks. In both. or whether he "victoriously concluded" his acceptance of the creed after being introduced to it by Garland's statement of Howells's belief. rather. and he is not at all responsible for his vision--he is merely responsible for his quality of personal honesty. his faith in his own vision led him to exploit his inner eye. is perhaps not too important. make the most of it. Important. In 1896." Crane. no beauty." On a level of greater depth and significance. he wrote: "I had no other purpose in writing 'Maggie' than to show people to people as they seem to me. Whether Crane discovered his creed "all alone" and merely received confirmation from Garland and Howells. Crane-- like Garland-was revealing an acceptance of the strain of romantic individualism which demands that the artist above all be independent 71 . If that be evil. this faith led him to exploit and defend the unconventional and forbidden in Maggie. above all." Earlier that year he had stated this idea even more elaborately: "I understand that a man is born into the world with his own pair of eyes. is Crane's derivation in 1892 of a concept of personal honesty and vision similar to both Garland's idea--which Garland saw exemplified in Howells-- that "'the novelist [must] be true to himself and to things as he sees them'" and Howells's own statement that the novelist should above all "remember that there is no greatness.things he has learned of the common man and. confident of the validity of showing "people to people as they seem to me. which does not come from truth to your own knowledge of things. then." The important elements in these two statements of literary indebtedness are Crane's realization of a debt to Howells and his further realization of the similarity of his "little creed" with the critical ideas of Garland and Howells. for a certain readjustment of his point of view vic toriously concluded some time in 1892. On a superficial level. and self-reliant, that he be confident that within himself lies the touchstone of artistic truth. FRANK NORRIS's definition of naturalism is important because an understanding of his use of the term may help to explain both his own practice of fiction and the more general American reaction to Zolaesque literary principles. My reason for reintroducing the much- debated question of Norris's definition is that I believe new light can be shed on the subject by the examination of not only his wellknown "A Plea for Romantic Fiction", but also his lessknown "Zola as a Romantic Writer" and his relatively unknown "Weekly Letter" in the Chicago American of August 3, 1901. Norris placed realism, romanticism, and naturalism in a dialectic, in which realism and romanticism were opposing forces, and naturalism was transcending synthesis. Realism, to Norris, was the literature of the normal and representative, "the smaller details of every-day life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper." Moreover, realism does not probe the inner reaches of life; it "notes only the surface of things." Howells is Norris's archetype of the realistic writer. Romanticism differs from realism both in its concern for "variations from the type of normal life," and in its desire to penetrate beneath the surface of experience and derive large generalizations on the nature of life. Romanticism explores "the unplumbed depths of the human heart, and the mystery of sex, and the problems of life, and the black, unsearched penetralia of the soul of man." To Norris "the greatest of all modern romanticists " is Hugo. Now what of naturalism? Although Norris at times called Zola a romanticist, it is clear that he intended in that designation to emphasize Zola's lack of affinity to Howellsian realism rather than to eliminate naturalism as a distinctive descriptive term. Naturalism, as conceived by Norris, resolved the conflict between realism and romanticism by selecting the best from these two modes and by adding one constituent ignored by both. In his "Weekly Letter" to the Chicago American of August 3, 1901, he partially described this synthesis. He began with a distinction between Accuracy and Truth. Accuracy is fidelity to particular detail; Truth is fidelity to the 72 generalization applicable to a large body of experience. Since a novel may therefore be accurate in its depiction of a segment of life and yet be untrue, Norris inquired what is the source of truth in fiction, if a literal transcription of life itself is inadequate. He began to find his way out of this dilemma when he asked: It is permissible to say that Accuracy is realism and Truth romanticism? The divisions seem natural and intended. It is not difficult to be accurate, but it is monstrously difficult to be True; at best the romanticists can only aim at it, while on the other hand, mere accuracy as an easily obtainable result is for that reason less worthy. Norris then asked: Does Truth after all "lie in the middle"? And what school, then, is midway between the Realists and Romanticists, taking the best from each? Is it not the school of Naturalism, which strives hard for accuracy, and truth? The nigger is out of the fence at last, but must it not be admitted that the author of La Débâcle (not the author of La Terre and Fécondité) is up to the present stage of literary development the most adequate, the most satisfactory, the most just of them all? Naturalism, in short, abstracts the best from realism and romanticism-- detailed accuracy and philosophical depth. In addition, naturalism differs from both modes in one important characteristic of its subject matter. As Norris explained in his Wave essay on "Zola as a Romantic Writer": That Zola's work is not purely romantic as was Hugo's lies chiefly in the choice of Milieu. These great, terrible dramas no longer happen among the personnel of a feudal and Renaissance nobility, those who are in the fore-front of the marching world, but among the lower-- almost the lowest--classes; those who have been thrust or wrenched from the ranks, who are falling by the roadway. This is not romanticism--this drama of the people, working itself out in blood and ordure. It is not realism. It is a school by itself, unique, somber, powerful beyond words. It is naturalism. What is particularly absorbing in this definition is that it is limited entirely to subject matter and method. It does not mention 73 materialistic determinism or any other philosophical idea, and thus differs from the philosophical orientation both of Zola's discussions of naturalism and of those by modern critics of the movement. Norris conceived of naturalism as a fictional mode which illustrated some fundamental truth of life within a detailed presentation of the sensational and low. Unlike Zola, however, he did not specify the exact nature of the truth to be depicted, and it is clear that he believed Hugo's "truth" as naturalistic as Zola's. With Norris's definition in mind, then, we can perhaps understand his remark to Isaac Marcosson that The Octopus was going to be a return to the "style" of McTeague- -"straight naturalism." Although the early novel is consciously deterministic in its treatment of human action and the later one dramatizes a complex intermingling of free will and determinism, this contradiction is nonexistent within the philosophical vacuum of Norris's definition. Norris's definition, however, is not only significant for his own fictional practice. It also clarifies some fundamental characteristics of the naturalistic movement in America. It suggests that for many Americans influenced by European naturalistic currents, the naturalistic mode involved primarily the contemporary, low, and sensational, which was elaborately documented within a large thematic framework. The writer might give his work a philosophical center--indeed, the naturalistic mode encouraged such a practice. But the core ideas or values present in particular works tended to be strikingly diverse from author to author, as each writer approached his material from an individual direction rather than from the direction of an ideological school. American naturalism, in other words, has been largely a movement characterized by similarities in material and method, not by philosophical coherence. And perhaps this very absence of a philosophical center to the movement has been one of the primary reasons for its continuing strength in this country, unlike its decline in Europe. For writers as different as Dreiser and Crane, or Farrell and Faulkner, have responded to the exciting possibilities of a combination of romantic grandioseness, detailed verisimilitude, and didactic sensationalism, and yet, like Norris, have been able to shape these possibilities into works expressing most of all their own distinctive temperaments. 74 Stephen Crane's Maggie and American Naturalism STEPHEN CRANE'S MAGGIE: A Girl of the Streets has often served as an example of naturalistic fiction in America. Crane's novel about a young girl's fall and death in the New York slums has many of the distinctive elements of naturalistic fiction, particularly a slum setting and the theme of the overpowering effect of environment. Crane himself appeared to supply a naturalistic gloss to the novel when he wrote to friends that Maggie was about the effect of environment on human lives. Yet the novel has characteristics which clash with its neat categorization as naturalistic fiction. For one thing, Crane's intense verbal irony is seldom found in naturalistic fiction; for another, Maggie herself, though she becomes a prostitute, is strangely untouched by her physical environment. She functions as an almost expressionistic symbol of inner purity uncorrupted by external foulness. There is nothing, of course, to prevent a naturalist from depending on irony and expressionistic symbolism, just as there is nothing to prevent him from introducing a deterministic theme into a Jamesian setting. But in practice the naturalist is usually di rect. He is concerned with revealing the blunt edge of the powerful forces which condition our lives, and his fictional technique is usually correspondingly blunt and massive. When Zola in L'Assoramoir and Nana wished to show the fall into prostitution of a child of the slums, his theme emerged clearly and ponderously from his full description of the inner as well as outer corruption of Nana and from his "realistic" symbolism. Crane's method, on the other hand, is that of obliqueness and indirection. Irony and expressionistic symbolism ask the reader to look beyond literal meaning, to seek beyond the immediately discernible for the underlying reality. Both are striking techniques which by their compelling tone and their distortion of the expected attempt to shock us into recognition that a conventional belief or an obvious "truth" may be false and harmful. Perhaps, then, Maggie can best be discussed by assuming from the first that Crane's fictional techniques imply that the theme of the novel is somewhat more complex than the truism that young girls in the slums are more apt to go bad than young girls elsewhere. 75 The opening sentence of Maggie is: "A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley." The sentence introduces both Crane's theme and his ironic technique. By juxtaposing the value of honor and the reality of a very little boy, a heap of gravel, and Rum Alley, Crane suggests that the idea of honor is inappropriate to the reality, that it serves to disguise from the participants in the fight that they are engaged in a vicious and petty scuffle. Crane's irony emerges out of the difference between a value which one imposes on experience and the nature of experience itself. His ironic method is to project into the scene the values of its participants in order to underline the difference between their values and reality. So the scene has a basic chivalric cast. The very little boy is a knight fighting on his citadel of gravel for the honor of his chivalrous pledge to Rum Alley. Crane's opening sentence sets the theme for Maggie because the novel is essentially about man's use of conventional but inapplicable abstract values (such as justice, honor, duty, love, and respectability) as weapons or disguises. The novel is not so much about the slums as a physical reality as about what people believe in the slums and how their beliefs are both false to their experience and yet function as operative forces in their lives. Let me explore this idea by examining first the lives of the novel's principal characters and then the moral values which control their thinking about their lives. Crane uses two basic images to depict the Bowery. It is a battlefield and it is a prison. These images appear clearly in the novel's first three chapters, which describe an evening and night in the life of the Johnson family during Maggie's childhood. The life of the family is that of fierce battle with those around them and among themselves. The novel opens with Jimmie fighting the children of Devil's Row. He then fights one of his own gang. His father separates them with a blow. Maggie mistreats the babe Tommie; Jimmie strikes Maggie; Mrs. Johnson beats Jimmie for fighting. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson quarrel. Mrs. Johnson beats Maggie for breaking a plate; Mr. Johnson strikes Jimmie with an empty beer pail. Mr. Johnson comes home drunk and he and Mrs. Johnson fight-- all this in three rather short chapters. Crane's fundamental point in these chapters is that the home is not a sanctuary from the struggle and turmoil of the world but is rather where warfare is even more intense 76 and where the animal qualities encouraged by a life of battle--strength, fear, and cunning--predominate. The slum and the home are not only battlefields, however, but are also enclosed arenas. Maggie's tenement is in a "dark region," and her apartment, "up dark stairways and along cold, gloomy halls" (12, 15), is like a cave. Crane's description of the Johnson children eating combines both the warfare and cave images into one central metaphor of primitive competition for food: "The babe sat with his feet dangling high from a precarious infant chair and gorged his small stomach. Jimmie forced, with feverish rapidity, the greaseenveloped pieces between his wounded lips. Maggie, with side glances of fear of interruption, ate like a small pursued tigress" (19- 20). By means of this double pattern of imagery, Crane suggests that the Johnsons' world is one of fear, fury, and darkness, that it is a world in which no moral laws are applicable, since the Johnsons' fundamental guide to conduct is an instinctive amorality, a need to feed and to protect themselves. Once introduced, this image of the Bowery as an amoral, animal world is maintained throughout Maggie. Mr. Johnson dies, Jimmie assumes his position, and the Johnsons' family warfare continues as before. Maggie and Jimmie go to work, and each finds that struggle and enclosure mark his adult world. Jimmie becomes a belligerent truck driver, imprisoned by his ignorance and his distrust. He respects only strength in the form of the red fire engine which has the power to crush his wagon. Maggie works in a prisonlike sweat shop where she is chided into resentment by her grasping employer. Theirs are lives of animal struggle and of spiritual bleakness in which they only faintly realize their own deprivation. Maggie sits with the other girls in her factory workroom in a vague state of "yellow discontent," and Jimmie, the brawling teamster, "nevertheless..., on a certain starlit evening, said wonderingly and quite reverently: 'Deh moon looks like hell, don't it?'" (40). The moral values held by the Johnsons are drawn almost entirely from a middle-class ethic which stresses the home as the center of virtue, and respectability as the primary moral goal. It is a value system oriented toward approval by others, toward an audience. In the opening chapter of the novel, Jimmie hits Maggie as Mr. Johnson is 77 rejects her plea for aid because she threatens the respectability of the rough and tumble bar in which he works. Jimmies. Later. Viewing it. Maggie and Pete see plays in which the heroine was rescued from the palatial home of her guardian. and her seducer. The reaction to Maggie's fall is basically of this nature. These roles bring social approbation. Unmistakably bad men evinced an apparently sincere admiration for virtue" (71). Mr. Crane makes the dramatic nature of Bowery morality explicit in scenes set in dance halls and theatres.. (70) The audience identifies itself with maligned and innocent virtue despite the inapplicability of these roles to their own lives. inevitably without. however. She is cast out by her mother and brother for desecrating the Home. "'Leave yer sister alone on the street'" (14) (my italics)." To Maggie and the rest of the audience this was transcendental realism. they hugged themselves in ecstatic pity of their imagined or real condition. Johnson cries.taking them home. Pete. who is cruelly after her bonds. The Johnsons' moral vision is dominated by moral roles which they believe are expected of them. Maggie lost herself in sympathy with the wanderers swooning in snow storms beneath happy-hued church windows. In a dance hall. The moral poses adopted by the Johnsons and by Pete have no relation to reality. and they are also satisfying because the playing of them before an audience encourages a gratifying emotionalism or self-justification. Joy always within. And a choir within singing "Joy to the World. "Shady persons in the audience revolted from the pictured villainy of the drama. and they. like the actor. . by the hero with the beautiful sentiments. With untiring zeal they hissed vice and applauded virtue. since the home and the bar are parallel settings of warfare rather than of virtue. 78 . Those expressing moral sentiments do so as though playing a role before a real or implied audience. and Petes listens enraptured to a song "whose lines told of a mother's love and a sweetheart who waited and a young man who was lost at sea under the most harrowing circumstances" (61-62).. an audience of Maggies. The key to the morality of the Bowery is therefore its selfdeceiving theatricality. both its primitive amorality and its sentimental morality. Johnson are aware of their need to play the roles of outraged virtue in response to the expectations of their audience. Johnson. condemn. Mrs. Both of these central characteristics of the Bowery--its core of animality and its shell of moral poses--come together strikingly in Mrs. In a sense she symbolizes the entire Bowery world. Crane in this scene connects the sentimental morality of melodrama and the sactimoniousness of Bowery religion. were a sentimental theatre which encouraged moral poses but which ignored the essential nature of itself and its audience. both Jimmie and Mrs. The inevitable sunlight came streaming in at the windows" (161). Her drunken rages symbolize the animal fury of a slum home. The novel's final scene is a parody of Bowery melodrama. The heroes and heroines of melodrama cannot be confronted with reality. too. driving her into remaining with Pete and then into prostitution. Johnson mourns over the dead Maggie's baby shoes while the neighbors cry in sympathy and the "woman in black" urges her to forgive Maggi. Each crisis in the Johnson family is viewed by neighbors who comprise an audience which encourages the Johnsons to adopt moral poses." or when Maggie seeks aid from the stout clergyman. she refuses to allow Maggie to return home after her seduction by Pete.This same ability to project oneself into a virtuous role is present in most of the novel's characters. its reaction is either nonidentification with reality ("'What?'" asks the preacher) or withdrawal from it (the clergyman sidesteps Maggie). then. "The woman in black raised her face and paused. When it is. 79 . In the scene in which Maggie is cast out. Johnson addresses the nieghbors "like a glib showman. There is a bitter Swiftian irony in Crane's portrait of her. Both the theatre and the mission purvey moral attitudes which have no relation to life but which rather satisfy emotional needs or social approval. It is as though the church. and cast out Maggie symbolizes the self-righteousness of Bowery morality. but the church is occasionally challenged. Secure in her moral role. that it is she who literally drives Maggie into prostitution and eventual death." and with a "dramatic finger" points out to them her errant daughter (132-33). In the midst of her exhortations. It is appropriate. Mrs. as when the mission preacher is asked why he never says "we" instead of "you. and her quickness to judge. Crane's desire. and she is drawn to Pete because his apparent strength and elegance offer a means of overcoming the brutality and ugliness of her home and work. however. Crane's characterization of Maggie can now be examined. Zola's portrait of Nana dying of a disfiguring disease which symbolizes her spiritual as well as physical corruption is more convincing. She is never really immoral. was to stress that the vicious deterministic force in the slums was its morality. Her weakness is compounded out of the facts that her amoral environment has failed to arm her with moral strength (she "would have been more firmly good had she better known why" 80 . Maggie as an expressionistic symbol of purity in a mud puddle is Crane's means of enforcing his large irony that purity is destroyed not by concrete evils but by the very moral codes established to safeguard it.Maggie is thus destroyed not so much by the physical reality of slum life as by a middleclass morality imposed on the slums by the missions and the melodrama. in her veins" (41) is not "realistic. rather than damnation and destruction. from her seduction by Pete to her plunge into the East River. Crane never dispels the impression that her purity and innocence remain. a morality which allows its users both to judge and to divorce themselves from responsibility from those they judge. and it is this emphasis which controls his characterization of Maggie. His description of her as having "blossomed in a mud puddle" with "none of the dirt of Rum Alley. For though her world does not affect her moral nature. not its poor housing or inadequate diet... But Maggie is a more complex figure than the above analysis suggests. It is only when her environment becomes a moral force that she is destroyed. Her mistaken conception of Pete results from her enclosed world. a world which has given her romantic illusions just as it has supplied others with moral poses. Her primary drive in life is to escape her mud puddle prison. Her mistake warrants compassion. Throughout her fall. it does contribute to her downfall by blurring her vision." since it is difficult to accept that the slums would have no effect on her character. His point is that Maggie comes through the mud puddle of her physical environment untouched. however. could be acquired by a girl who lived in a tenement house and worked in a shirt factory" [72- 73]). Like Mrs. for example. And like Maggie herself. Johnson. The entire novel bears this critical intent. Pete desires to maintain the respectability of his "home.. Maggie is thus a novel primarily about the falsity and destructiveness of certain moral codes. Like her." the bar in which he works. Maggie flees into the same world she wished to escape. while at the same time it has blinded her with self-destructive romantic illusions ("she wondered if the culture and refinement she had seen imitated. Johnson. these codes and their analogous 81 . like Maggie's mother. he theatrically purifies himself of guilt and responsibility for Maggie's fall as he drunkenly sobs "'I'm good f'ler.. immediately equate a fallen girl with evil and hell. His irony involving Mrs. Crane is here not so much expressing a belief in heaven as using the idea of salvation and damnation as a rhetorical device to attack smug. There is considerable irony that in choosing Pete. Maggie can escape the immediate prison of her home and factory. In his famous inscription to Maggie.[115]). Crane's focus in Maggie is less on the inherent evil of slum life than on the harm done by a false moral environment imposed on that life. He is used and discarded by the "woman of brilliance and audacity" just as he had used and discarded Maggie. but she cannot escape being enclosed by the combination of amoral warfare (now sexual) and moral poses which is the pervasive force in her world. To be sure. In short. centers on the religious and moral climate which has persuaded her to adopt the moral poses of outraged Motherhood and despoiled Home. Crane wrote that the novel "tries to show that environment is a tremendous thing in the world and frequently shapes lives regardless." But he went on to write that "if one proves that theory one makes room in Heaven for all sorts of souls (notably an occasional street girl) who are not confidently expected to be there by many excellent people. he is eventually a victim of sexual warfare." 3 The second part of the inscription contains an attack on the "many excellent people" who. self-righteous moralism. girls'" (150) to an audi ence of prostitutes. by the heroine on the stage. a Maggie (or a Jennie Gerhardt) will at least be saved from condemnation and destruction by an unjust code. the often crude and outdated determinism of early American naturalism 82 . It is rather that of a belief in the social function of the novel in delineating the evils of social life. for his primary concern is not a dispassionate. and are in part what Crane means when he wrote that environment shapes lives regardless. But Crane's ironic technique suggests that his primary goal was not to show the effects of environment but to distin guish between moral appearance and reality. we can at least destroy those systems of value which uncritically assume we can.romantic visions of experience are present in Maggie's environment. Maggie is therefore very much like such early Dreiser novels as Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt. Like William Dean Howells. uncontrollable forces in man and society. are not men who despair at the nature of things. to attack the sanctimonious self-deception and sentimental emotional gratification of moral poses. who demand that men evaluate their experience with greater clarity and honesty. Crane wishes us to understand the inadequacies of our lives so that we may improve them. He was less concerned with dramatizing a deterministic philosophy than in assailing those who apply a middle class morality to victims of amoral. Although Crane stresses weaknesses in our moral vision rather than particular social abuses. If we do this. They are rather critical realists. But he is much more than this. for the later novel seeks to demonstrate the falsity of a moral or romantic vision of the amorality which is war. This continuity is not that of subject matter or even of conception of man and society. pessimistic tracing of inevitable forces but a satiric assault on weaknesses in social morality. though Dreiser depends less on verbal irony and more on an explicit documentation and discussion of the discrepancy between an event and man's moral evaluation of an event. Writers who seek greater justice. there is more continuity between Howells's critical realism and Crane's naturalism than one might suspect. then. is a naturalistic writer in the sense that he believes that environment molds lives. Crane. He seems to be saying that though we may not control our destinies. If one sees such a writer as Crane in this light. Maggie is also like The Red Badge of Courage. from Crane and Dreiser to our own times. His fiction still excites because his ironic technique successfully involves us in the difference between moral appearance and reality in society. One begins to realize that American naturalism. like most vital literary movements. His fiction is historically important because his expression of this theme within the conventions of naturalistic fiction reveals the relationship between critical realism and naturalism. But his fiction is perhaps even more significant historically because he revealed the possibility of a uniquely personal style and vision within naturalistic conventions. comprised a body of convention and assumption about the function and nature of literature which unprescriptively allowed the writer to use this shared belief as the basis for a personally expressive work of art. Our writers have responded to the critical spirit and the fictional sensationalism and freedom of naturalism without a sense of being burdened by doctrinaire precepts and forms. 83 . And it is no doubt this invigorating freedom within continuity which has been one of the principal reasons for the strength and influence of the naturalistic movement in America. Crane's fiction is therefore permanently absorbing and historically significant not because he was a determinist or fatalist writing about the slums or about the chaos of war.lessens in importance. It also proved that a brilliant critic can forge intellectual history and myth criticism into an exciting and revealing tool of cultural research. Parrington in the 1920s. I am troubled by certain misgivings and reservations concerning its usefulness as a tool of literary criticism. I choose The Octopus as my example of a literary work not because I wish to explicate it (I have published explications elsewhere). the impact of industrialism has caused opposing 84 . Rather. Like Parrington. and Leo Marx synthesized "main currents" in American literature and thought. Marx. rural. Marx's comments on it are more or less satisfying than those on other works. Mr." an article which I will examine in relation to Frank Norris's The Octopus." This opposition is not the result of a writer's direct reference to the historical fact of industrialism. F. and not because Mr. In many ways this movement was estimable. if cultivated. and would like to explain these doubts. It illumined large areas of our national experience and expression. I will introduce W. and am therefore moved to examine his critical method as representative of the group. Yet despite my admiration for much synthetic criticism. Marx believes that a "common denominator" in much American literature is "the opposition between two cardinal images of value. I choose Mr. One usually is an image of landscape. L. such writers as Marius Bewley. My example of a work of synthetic criticism is Leo Marx's "Two Kingdoms of Force. Marx as an example of a synthetic critic because I find him the most satisfying and the most suggestive of the group I have named. Leslie Fiedler. In addition. they posited initially a universal dialectic in American experience which accounts for the distinctively American quality of these patterns in our culture. I know more about Norris's novel than any other work discussed by Mr.Frank Norris's The Octopus ONE OF THE most significant movements in the interpretation of American literature during the 1950s and 1960s was the revitalization of the critical method pioneered by V. the other is an image of industrial technology. either wild or. Taylor's The Economic Novel in America to help clarify the issues involved in my discussion. Again like Parrington. and can best demonstrate my general thesis by using it. Rather. Richard Chase. " In his discussion of The Octopus. Mr. we assume that art springs from the more profound and inclusive experience."psychic states" to cluster around the opposing images of the landscape and the machine. Marx to support his view are highly persuasive. Marx points out." Mr. Marx explains that in Huckleberry Finn the destruction of the raft by the steamboat reveals Twain's participation in this theme despite Twain's avowed faith in industrial progress and despite his lack of conscious symbolism in the incident. including the scene in The Octopus in which Presley experiences the massacre of a flock of sheep by a railroad engine. Thoreau) consciously symbolized this opposition by means of images of nature and the machine. Mr. and what is implied by his work. accommodation to the organic creativity of nature or dominion over nature. the polarity between the kingdom of love and the kingdom of power--almost always represented by images of nature and technology--is to Mr. in his own words. Marx concludes: "Presley listens to the agonized cries of the wounded animals and the blood seeping down into the cinders. probably the dominant theme in our literature. Mr. Marx "a dominant." In a key passage. Norris's presentation of the railroad and nature thus appears little different from that of a Hawthorne or Thoreau. however. destroys the idyllic calm of the scene as well as Presley's sense of oneness with nature. Marx has followed a procedure common in synthetic criticism: the critic derives a broad pattern from 85 . " Almost all the literary works and passages cited by Mr. "between what a writer tells us directly. and thus the theme of the novel is set. Though at first certain romantic writers ( Hawthorne. This incident. "In the face of a discrepancy. within a short time the dramatic clash between nature and machine became crystallized into a literary convention whose use suggests a writer's subconscious acceptance of the conflict rather than his explicit reference to it. Whether conscious or not. As between mere opinion and the indirection of art. These states are above all those suggesting love on the one hand and power on the other--that is. so to speak. Mr. it is to his work that we owe the more serious attention. Marx writes. F. or because of some other causative factor. seeing in mechanical power. Instead. who has written one of the standard works on the subject. Taylor. they mostly agreed with Mark Twain in welcoming the Machine. whether because of a tacit understanding of that difficulty. and. with virtual unanimity they put on favorable record--the coming of the Machine. "places" particular authors in this tradition. Taylor studies the economic fiction (in a broad sense) of most of the major figures of the age-Howells. and finally deduces an interpretation and evaluation of individual works in terms of the author's tradition. properly controlled. and Garland--and of many minor writers as well. not industrialism per se. Taylor thus states a "pattern" antithetical to Mr. The opportunities for error and misdirection in this method are familiar to readers of doctoral dissertations which survey extensive material.particular images.. was not the Machine itself but the misuse of the Machine by Society. the usefulness of the Machine was a thing difficult indeed to call in question. Marx's interpretation of late nineteenth-century American fiction with that of W. he then implies that this pattern is the key to the themes of individual works. He believes that the novelists of this period put on record--indeed. American novelists practically never did so. In America. in the course of the conquest of the immense distances. Norris. Seldom if ever do they make the machine per se the object of critical attack. On a more sophisticated level the same danger is inherent in works of synthetic criticism. Let me begin to explain more concretely the source of my doubts about synthetic criticism by comparing Mr. If one reads The Octopus in terms of Mr. passages. simply a means of realizing the old democratic dream of universal material well-being. its theme is the misuse of the machine by an uncontrolled monopoly rather than distrust and fear 86 . and scenes in a large number of works by many authors. Mr. the immense resources of a continent. Twain. Taylor. but the workings of an industrial order administered by a laissezfaire capitalism. Marx's. Mr.. What American novelists put on unfavorable record. In such works the student establishes a tradition.. what they subjected to telling exposure and criticism. he "seemed for one instant to touch the explanation of existence. but that The Octopus is a complex novel which is many things to many critics. Within this thematic core. FORCE that crowded them out of it to make way for the succeeding generation. Marx and Mr. this antithesis can be resolved by a reading of the novel which tries to come to grips with its own intrinsic pattern. the ranchers and the railroad fail to realize the omnipotence and benevolence of the natural law of supply and demand which determines the production and the distribution of wheat. Taylor demonstrates not that one is right and the other wrong. the first by speculative 87 . Norris borrowed from Joseph LeConte. Second. they benefit the race as a whole. calm. and he used this idea as the core theme of The Octopus. immortal. By this action. Although these processes and laws are impersonal. death. infinitely strong. the idea that God is immanent in nature as a universal force or energy." The explanation is that "FORCE only existed--FORCE that brought men into the world. First. FORCE that garnered it from the soil to give place to the succeeding crop. " This universal force inherent in the life processes of both human and nonhuman existence is finally characterized by Presley as "primordial energy flung out from the hand of the Lord God himself. and thereby achieve contentment and a resolution of their problem. they rise above their personal sorrows and narrowness. three overly intellectual and fundamentally selfish young men-- Annixter. FORCE that made the wheat grow." 5 In The Octopus this energy is symbolized primarily by the wheat and by the processes of its growth and the "laws" of its production and distribution. one of his teachers at the University of California. Vanamee. But perhaps the antithesis between Mr. by recognizing God in nature-- and by tuning their lives in accord with them. too. Individuals or groups determine their personal destinies by recognizing these processes--that is. and evil is the failure to understand the processes of nature or the attempt to thwart them.of the machine itself. As Presley views the harvested wheat fields toward the end of the novel. Perhaps. Both groups greedily exploit the demand for wheat. and rebirth. the novel has a twofold structure. The moral center of the novel is thus nature. and Presley-come to accept the benevolence and the omnipotence of the natural cycle of birth. with its ruddy arteries converging to a central point. To get all there was out of the land. would refuse to yield. to exhaust it. There is no doubt. they considered niggardly."bonanza" farming.5) The greed of the railroad is matched by that of the ranchers. to squeeze it dry. They did not care. the second by monopoly of transportation. Hebraic. at last. To husband the resources of their marvellous San Joaquin. the land worn out. and that he indirectly suggested means of alleviating its hold upon the community. an excrescence. sprawling organism."(II. Norris hammers at this similarity early in Book 2 in parallel images of the ranchers and railroad "sucking dry" the land. by then. of course. gorged to bursting. he describes a railroad map of California. seemed their policy. swollen with life-blood. It was as though the State had been sucked white and colourless. they would invest their money in something else. 14) Both groups. "After us the deluge. When. petty. First. for they had no love for their land. on which the railroad's lines are drawn in red: The map was white. and against this pallid background the red arteries of the monster stood out. (II. They were not attached to the soil. that Norris considered the railroad trust the more culpable of the two. moreover. reaching out to infinity. and cities marked upon it had been absorbed by that huge. however. 6 88 . towns. They worked their ranches as a quarter of a century before they had worked their mines. and it seemed as if all the colour which should have gone to vivify the various counties. a gigantic parasite fattening upon the life-blood of an entire commonwealth. they would all have made fortunes. engaged in corrupt acts in their struggle for possession of the profitable land and its crop. But Norris's primary emphasis was that the benevolent cycle of growth and the fulfilment of demand by supply are completed regardless of whatever harm and destruction men bring down upon themselves by their attempts to hinder or to manipulate these natural processes for their own profit. Norris desires to engage our emotions to fear and hate trusts. Early in Book 2 Cedarquist 89 . Marx suggests it is in his discussion of the sheep massacre scene. faint and prolonged.The symbolic role of the railroad engine throughout The Octopus is conditioned by the theme of the novel. it whistled for road crossings. Rather. leaving blood and destruction in its path. the soulless Force. the terror of steel and steam. 48) The engine. at rapid intervals in its flying course. in his imagination. Cyclopean. They are allied. hoarse. 361). not industrialism or the machine. the Colossus. the Octopus. the Trust. His theme is that "all things. such as that which destroys the flock of sheep. but saw it now as the symbol of a vast power. huge. inevitably. for sharp curves. for trestles. the galloping monster. the ironhearted Power. as Mr. are opposed to the landscape ("tentacles of steel clutching into the soil"). with tentacles of steel clutching into the soil. ringing with the accents of menace and defiance. flinging the echo of its thunder over all the reaches of the valley. they symbolize a particular railroad company whose monopolistic practices are antithetical to a particular natural law. red. and abruptly Presley saw again. spreading death and destruction. Norris underlines this symbolism at the close of the passage which ends the description of the sheep massacre: Then. surely. bellowing. terrible. he heard the engine whistling for Bonneville. Again and again. is above all a symbol of the Octopus-that is. a San Francisco industrialist and shipbuilder. so long as men use both landscape and machine (the means of production and distribution of wheat) in accordance with natural law. Norris illustrates this possible alliance by means of Cedarquist. across the levels of the ranch. Individual engines. His theme in the novel is not the conflict between technology and nature or between the kingdom of power and the kingdom of love. The monopoly is the soulless Force whose practices. then. (I. resistlessly work together for good" (II. do not symbolize the machine as a power antithetical to that of nature. shooting from horizon to horizon. that technology and the landscape are allied rather than oppossed in the forward thrust toward human betterment. the monster. the leviathan. ominous notes. with its single eye. that is. . must be fed. Population in Europe is not increasing fast enough to keep up with the rapidity of our production. just as most eighteenth-century Englishmen (as Lois Whitney has pointed 90 . Europe is played out. The remedy is not in the curtailing of our wheat areas.. He explains: The great word of this nineteenth century has been Production.. Markets. the population is stationary. The great word of the twentieth century will be. Norris holds in solution.. In some cases. The Asiatics. The result is overproduction. of greed-- not of power--which opposes it.outlines to Magnus Derrick a plan whereby the producers and distributors of wheat can use the law of supply and demand in a way which benefits both themselves and mankind. As a market for our Production--or let me take a concrete example--as a market for our Wheat. We supply more than Europe can eat. Norris therefore does establish a kingdom of love. I mean. however. What fatuous neglect of op portunity to continue to deluge Europe with our surplus food when the East trembles upon the verge of starvation! (II. if not on rice... Cedarquist begins to ship wheat to the East. though. greater markets. from California to Europe. the "mechanical" distributor (a railroad or shipping company) can with profit to himself aid the fulfillment of a benevolent natural law rather than attempt to thwart the operation of the law for excessive personal gain. But the time will come when we must send it from West to East. have gone on producing wheat at a tremendous rate. we must look to China. For years we have been sending our wheat from East to West. both the kingdom of love (accommodation to nature) and of power (dominion over nature). We.. we must have new markets.. but in this. Norris's basic attitude corresponds less to the artist's sense that there is a contradiction between the worlds of nature and the machine than to the capacity of the popular mind to maintain without a sense of contradiction the opposing ideals of cultural primitivism and industrial progress. then on wheat. but he not unconventionally suggests that it is the kingdom of selflove. 21-22) On the basis of this perception. In other words. In short. and down go the prices. Rice in China is losing its nutritive quality. without conflict. as in France. that though a fictional incident may not be literally symbolic of a nature- machine conflict. it may draw upon the conventional imagery and connotations of such a conflict. In short.out) called for both a return to the simple and a progress toward the complex. Nor have I discussed Zola's influence on Norris's depiction of destructive railroad engines and on his practice of animalizing machines. Marx's most pertinent ideas (which he introduces in connection with Huck's raft and the steamboat). In this passage. I have not taken up any of these. I have not traced those occasions in Norris's fiction and criticism when he deals honorifically with the industrialist and with machines. for example. I have not. This observation is applicable to The Octopus. I have not introduced the influence of Kipling. Now in this cursory summary of The Octopus I have not taken up what Mr. he does mistrust monopolies. and just as the average American feels no discrepancy in taking a jet to "get away from it all" in the North Woods. the machine-nature antithesis serves Norris as a reservoir of affective imagery. and frightened person. including railroad engines. Norris's exploitation of the machine as a source of such imagery is also demonstrated by a passage in which nature itself is presented as a destructive machine. He therefore uses the conventional imagery of the machinenature "pattern" to add emotional intensity to his engineOctopus-Trust symbolism. in which the importance of the railroad to the well-being of the state was universally affirmed but in which the Southern Pacific monopoly was often referred to as an Octopus. Norris wished to depict how the omnipotent and impersonal power of nature appears to a timid. though they have all helped me to understand Norris's treatment of the railroad in The Octopus. withdrawn. who combined in such works as Captains Courageous an admiration both for the "natural" life and for railroads and their machinery. discussed his California background. though it does not necessarily function as a thematic key. one whose timidity prevents her 91 . But to return to one of Mr. Marx considers "direct" testimony as evidence concerning Norris's attitude toward the machine. Though Norris does not distrust the machine. terrible. the agony of destruction sending never a jar. (I. indeed. huge. Derrick. red. knowing no compunction. strive to make head against the power of this nature. and that Mr. Norris unconsciously participates in the "main current" described by Mr. no forgiveness. Marx. Both have described parts of Norris's theme and art in The Octopus. neither has seen the novel whole.from sensing the fundamental benevolence of this power. have I in this brief paper. and at once it became relentless. the railroad and nature are equally destructive because of their power. To know something of Norris's biography. of the intellectual and literary influences upon him. (I. hurrying along at its side in the mysterious march of the centuries. and of his social milieu-- 92 . then. that its theme is set by its imagery of the destructive machine. Cyclopean. not hostile. so long as the human ant-swarm was submis sive. working with it. Marx has seen that Norris relies on a traditional romantic description of the machine. This reliance does indeed imply that despite his overt emphasis on the benevolent role of the machine. Taylor has seen that Norris's theme involves an attack on the misuse of the machine. a vast power. I think it more meaningful to say that Mr. to strive for this "wholeness"? I would suggest a critical eclecticism. Rather. She first imagines the railroad (repeating Presley's imagery) as a "galloping terror of steam and steel. and neither. crushing out the human atom with soundless calm. however. it is apparent that Norris draws upon machine imagery to provide emotional intensity to the description of any destructive force. 173). even kindly and friendly. Then follows her conception of nature: She recognized the colossal indifference of nature. Let. a leviathan with a heart of steel. 174) Thus. a gigantic engine. therefore. To Mrs. But I do not think that it is possible on the basis of this participation to say that The Octopus is "really about" the two kingdoms of force--that is. no tolerance. including nature itself when it is so conceived. How. with its single eye. the insect rebel." etc. never the faintest tremor through all that prodigious mechanism of wheels and cogs. 93 . The conflict between the two kingdoms of force may well be the dominant theme in American literature.to read The Octopus with a sense of its total impact and with a recognition that its parts (including imagery and symbolism) should be relevant to that impact-and to know something about such cultural traditions as the "two kingdoms of force"--this seems to me to be the best method for determining the meaning and significance of a complex work of art. But the theme of The Octopus is not "set" by scenes in which one element is the conventional imagery of the destructive machine. and Norris does partake of that theme in The Octopus. But historically. the moral of a fable is apt to be far more worldly than that of a parable. critics have often grappled with the relationship between London's socialism and Nietzscheanism. each of the terms also has a more specialized coloration. They simplify experience into useable precept rather than render it as either complex or ambivalent. At the considerable risk of moving to the other extreme of overschematization and overgeneralization. I should note that I do not maintain that there is a clear distinction between the fable and the parable. The critic tackles a particular narrow problem or a specific work and then extrapolates from it. and setting are allegorical agents of a paraphrasable moral. Fables and parables are not fiction in our modern sense of the distinctive nature of fiction. They seek to establish the validity of a particular moral truth by offering a brief story in which plot. The special appeal of 94 . Fables deal with how men act on earth. and what are the sources of London's strength and appeal as a writer given the superficiality of much of his work? So. The notion which I propose to pursue is that London as a thinker and as an artist is essentially a writer of fables and parables. I would like to suggest a single dominant solution to the enigma which is Jack London. parables with how they should act to gain salvation. for example. Furthermore. almost all have been piecemeal in character. because of the association of fable with Aesop and of parable with the Bible.Jack London MOST OF THE significant criticism of Jack London has been devoted to two interrelated issues: Is there a coherent center to London's ideas or are they indeed hopelessly confused and contradictory. and by parable is meant a work in which the principal agents are human. 1 Both forms are didactic. To help clear the ground. Whatever the value of these efforts. and they have sought to explain how a writer who could achieve the seamless perfection of "To Build a Fire" could also produce an extraordinary amount of trash. character. By fable is usually meant a work in which beasts (and occasionally inanimate objects) both speak and represent human qualities. But in that simplification lies a potential for artistic strength if artistry in this instance can be said to be the restatement in pleasing form of what we as a race or society wish to hear about ourselves. While the precept of a fable is both concrete and expedient (be less vain and you shall prosper more). Much of the attraction of the fable lies not only in our pleasure in finding clearly recognizable human characteristics confirmed in animals but in the nature of the precepts which these characteristics advance. asses stupid. the worldliness of the beast fable and the more programmatic moralism of the parable join in clear allegories containing both animal and human characters.the beast fable is that it substitutes wit for insight. In the fable. In the beast fable foxes are always shrewd. And since the ability to frame and respond to moral abstractions is a distinctively human attribute. Setting is nonexistent or minimal and when present is a condition of the moral dilemma in which the beasts find themselves (a forest is danger. And action is limited to that which renders immediately and clearly the heart of the precept. It seems strange today that the principal critical issue for many early readers of the most obviously fabulistic of London's fiction. that greed is a great equalizer. For the wisdom of the fable is the ancient wisdom of the world--that the shrewd and strong prevail unless blinded by pride. hawks predatory. The lesson of the fable is that the world is a place of seeking and grasping in which specific qualities of human nature always receive their just dessert. his dog stories. that of a parable tends toward moral abstractions (be charitable and you will be a better person). In Kipling's The Jungle Book. for example. sheep silly. and so on. By the late nineteenth century. was their problematical accuracy in depicting the conditions of 95 . the personae in a parable are almost always human. disappointment always seeks rationalization. a barn safety). Parable often moves beyond the way we are to the way we should be. and desire for gain guides all life. lions bold. and so on. whatever lines of demarcation that might have existed earlier between fable and parable had for the most part disappeared. It was to this blending of the fable/parable form that London was powerfully drawn. vanity is always victimized by shrewdness. it expresses not deep or fresh perception but rather a concise and clever recapitulation of what everybody knows. indicates that London's efforts to write conventional fiction were usually handicapped by his inadequacies in this form. in a famous controversy of 1907. we should be content to read. criticism of London has advanced far beyond Roosevelt's demand that animal fiction should announce itself clearly as either fabulistic or realistic. in a striking reading of The Call of the Wild and White Fang. Finally. suggests that when London wrote consciously in the parable form--as he did in these works--he sacrificed power for ideological obviousness. Earle Labor has suggested that the permanent appeal of these works is that they are beast fables whose endorsement of the myth of the hero and of the value of primordial strength rings true in our collective unconscious. but most significantly The Sea- Wolf. The second. But when such fables are written by a make- believe realist. "If the stories of these writers were written in the spirit that inspired Mowgli [the human figure in Kipling's The Jungle Book]. Theodore Roosevelt.. Labor's Jungian reading of these works is the most useful which has yet appeared. For example. but I believe that a more immediate reason for the appeal and holding power of London's best work lies in their form. attacked Lon don (among others) as a "nature faker. and accept them as fables. London's work falls roughly into three groups related to his "natural" inclination to work in the fable/parable form...natural life. The first." reveals his ability to rely unconsciously yet with great success on the underlying characteristics of the fable/parable.."2 Of course. which includes a large number of London's novels and short stories. I 96 . which includes The Call of the Wild and White Fang as well as such stories as "To Build a Fire" and "The Chinago. which includes The Iron Heel and such stories as "The Apostate" and "The Strength of the Strong". And the third..." He then went on to reveal his misunderstanding of the form in which London was writing." Referring to the fight between a lynx and a wolf in White Fang. Roosevelt commented. After the great success of The Call of the Wild and White Fang (as well as the contemporary popularity of other nature fiction). enjoy. "Nobody who really knew anything about either a lynx or a wolf would write such nonsense. but that such works are occasionally rescued by their fabulistic element. the matter assumes an entirely different complexion. The novels demonstrate the effects of a change in environment on the two dogs. and finally. Martin Eden. The Call of the Wild and White Fang are companion allegories of the response of human nature to heredity and environment. and Mercedes (the three "tenderfoot" Klondikers who buy Buck) are Vanity and Ignorance. calls forth from his racial past the strength and cunning necessary to survive in this world. but. though largely wolf and though bred in the Far North. and becomes doglike in his loyalty and love toward his master. What appeals in the two works is not London's dramatization of a particular late nineteenth-century Darwinian formulation but rather his powerful use of the principal ethical thrust and formal characteristics of the fable. dogs and men are types and the types themselves are moral in nature. The dogs in the story are even more clearly moral types--Laziness. and Weedon Scott is Thornton's counterpart. Both Buck and White Fang begin their lives with a mixture of the primitive and the civilized in their condition. and so on. Characterization is at a minimum in the two works. In Call. Setting is allegorical in both works. Buck is raised in the Southland ( London's allegorical setting for civilization). abducted into a Northland world of the ruthless struggle for existence. And action is symbolic within the clear lines of thematic movement of Buck's return to the primitive and White Fang's engagement by civilization. with an admixture as well of the parable. and John Thornton is Loyalty and Love. has an atavistic strain of wolf in his make-up.will also suggest that much that is distinctive and valuable in London's autobiographical writing--in The Road. contains an element of the civilized through his part-dog mother. first by Indians. Perhaps 97 . Charles. Kiche is the Mother. Beauty Smith (who exhibits White Fang) is Evil. White Fang is drawn into civilization. Envy. like all dogs. Buck. and eventually becomes the leader of a wolf- pack in a people-less wilderness. In White Fang. Honesty. then by miners. Hal. by upper middle class ranchers. in the Southland. with London exaggerating for symbolic clarity both the "softness" of the South and the competitive animality of the North. White Fang. and John Barleycorn--can be viewed as an extension into this form of his penchant for the fable/parable. Fear. also responds with love. given the similarities in theme and form between the two works. And White Fang. and the cunning shall prevail when. we are inherently more interested in an account of a return to the primitive than one of an advance into civilization. is why The Call of the Wild is generally held to be superior to White Fang. as I noted earlier. Buck's response to the kindness. An answer lies. and thus symbolic sharpness. the doldrums occasionally set in. the shrewd. Again. I believe.most important of all. as Earle Labor has pointed out. justness. Labor suggests. and it is his capac ity for love which often determines which direction he will take. The moral allegory is clear in both works. life is bestial. First. that this difference in attraction lies in the greater appeal which Call makes to our unconscious longing for primitive simplicity and freedom. this theme is not so much specifically ideological as it is racial wisdom. are sacrificed for lengthy development of each phase of White Fang's career. And since we can anticipate from the beginning the nature and direction of his evolution. Man hovers between the primitive and the civilized both in his make-up and in his world. For Call of the Wild proposes the wisdom of the beast fable that the strong. as is progressively true in this story. in the greater conformity of Call to the beast fable form in two significant areas. theme itself is essentially proverbial rather than ideological. But also. and warmth of Thornton is love. And White Fang endorses the Christian wisdom that all shall lie down together in peace when love predominates. it is only with the death of Thornton that he becomes the Ghost Dog of the wilderness. But this greater holding power may derive as well--and more immediately- 98 . An obvious question. with that wisdom embodied in a form which makes it pleasingly evident. when rescued from the brutality of Beauty Smith by Weedon Scott and when "educated" in affection by Scott. Fabulistic brevity and conciseness. It is not so much Darwin and Spencer who supply the thematic core of the two novels as Aesop and the Bible. Both Call and White Fang contain--to a degree not usually sufficiently stressed--a strong element of the Christian parable within their beast fable emphasis on the competitive nature of experience. White Fang makes greater pretentions to the range and fulness of a novel. London's best known and most admired story. the chechaquo. London as parablist dominates London as fabulist. the ironic disparity between our knowledge of Danger and the newcomer's Ignorance of it. and the setting in which he finds himself. The story reveals London's ability to use the conventions of the form not only in works centering on animals but also in those in which human characters predominate. "To Build a Fire". 99 . of which "The Apostate" and "The Strength of the Strong" are perhaps the best known examples. As in London's dog stories. Overexploitation occurs in a number of stories in which London consciously used the fable/parable form. is Danger. Like many artists. the extraordinary frost of a Yukon cold snap. that is. but there is much demonstration that it is better to be powerful in a world in which power controls destiny. just as in "The Chinago"--a story in which a Chinese coolie in Tahiti is wrongly executed for a murder--the fabulistic moral that men will destroy rather than acknowledge and rectify a mistake is more powerfully felt than any social protest theme arising out of the exploitation of coolie labor in the South Seas. the success of the story." for example. the moral of "To Build a Fire" rests more on racial wisdom than Darwinian ideology. London the ideologue is too fully in control of the mechanism of the story. In "To Build a Fire". As in Call and White Fang. London not only unconsciously exploited his own best talent but also consciously overexploited it on the one hand and neglected it on the other. as in the successful fable.from the fuller endorsement in Call of the Aesopian wisdom that the strong prevail. the fable moves toward its resolution of these two permanent conditions of life. There is not much love in Aesop. From its opening words. is also a fable/parable in the sense that I have discussed The Call of the Wild and White Fang. In these works. or "newcomer in the land." is Ignorance. stems from our acceptance of its worldly wisdom while simultaneously admiring the formal devices used to communicate it--in this instance. In "To Build a Fire". London in "To Build a Fire" (as well as in such a firstrate story as "The Chinago") involves us in a fable/parable without his conscious awareness that he is exploiting an allegory to deliver a message. and the brevity and clarity of the story's symbolic shape. "The Apostate. an innocent is also destroyed by "the system"--the bureaucracy of a judicial process which grinds to its conclusion even though the wrong man is being guillotined. Kipling. capitalistic ethic of the tribal leaders. in its account of a young man who has worked from childhood in various mills and factories. In that story the moralism inherent in the fable/ parable form is rendered wryly rather than "preachingly. the group is doomed. Rather it is to say that their moralism is less instructive (correct this evil) than informative (this is the way the world is) and that their tone is less indignant and somber than wry and detached. but its success is on a lower level than that of "The Chinago". Kipling is also present in the story itself in the figure of the "Bug. The "way of the world" fabulist irony of the story-that for most men it is more important to get the job done and to do it well (the executioners take pride in the guillotine they have constructed) than to achieve justice--saves the story from the sermonizing effect of "The Apostate". His account of tribal history is thus a history of civilization in which the par able moral is that when group interest is sacrificed to selfinterest. Whereas "The Apostate" lacks vitality. but liars will parable. that the human body and soul are incapable of being fully mechanized. London prefaced "The Strength of the Strong" with a brief epigraph: "Parables don't lie. 5 and that is what it is--no more and no less.was subtitled A Child Labor Parable in its magazine appearance. The parable is effective in its own right. The story tells us." He attributed this aphorism to "Lip-King. (Indeed. Nevertheless." a poet and parablist who endorses the imperialist. "The Strength of the Strong" is enlivened by the satiric edge of London's translation of various moments in Western history into comically rendered incidents in the history of a specific tribe. This is not to say that "The Chinago" and "To Build a Fire" are not moral works. if their moralism were not preeminent." In "The Chinago". they would not be fables/parables. that the effort to turn children and men into machines will breed rebellion. the central thrust of the story is still that of a 100 ." and thus paid mock homage to the principal writer of fables and parables of his day." "The Strength of the Strong" has its origin in London's socialist convictions. The narrator of the story is one of the few survivors of a prehistoric tribe which was destroyed by its own selfish bickering.) Like "The Apostate. He is the man-as-wolf who not only acts and thinks wolfishly in his single-minded gratification of self but has the mental equipment to attempt to justify his nature. Parable teaches best by example. the weaknesses those of the novel. Wolf Larsen is less a character than a type.political sermon. Although the novel is often described as an anti-Utopia. the "lesson" of The Iron Heel is single- dimensional: the forces arrayed against the achievement of social justice in America are powerful and ruthless. We find in the Wolf Larsen portion of The Sea-Wolf many of the 101 . But what of one of London's most widely read novels. it can also be profitably considered a parable despite its length. The Iron Heel. He who lives by the code of animal strength will die by it. The work has its moments. and we are thus more gratified than surprised when a parable element of moral retribution enters the fable of a wolf among us. particularly the Battle of Chicago conclusion. but the expansiveness of The Iron Heel permits London too much opportunity to teach by argument in Everhard's lengthy explanations of the rightness of his cause. "The Strength of the Strong" is by far the better artistic rendering of London's social ideas because it is by far the better parable. we also agree that we are not a civilization of wolves. but its overall failure illustrates the dangers inherent in extending ideological parable beyond the brief narrative. But though we may agree that there are many instances of wolflike behavior and values in life. The Sea-Wolf contains a buried fable/parable which is the principal source of its fictional energy--that of the overreacher. as Larsen indeed does when his vigor and shrewdness are diminished by a brain tumor. The Sea-Wolf? This compelling but seriously flawed work assumes its basic nature from London's effort to combine characteristics of the fable/parable with those of the conventional novel. of London offering a conscious rebuttal to the "Bug's" view of man's social nature and destiny. As in all of London's intentional parables. It is London's proselytizing for a cause which also vitiates his major exercise in the fully conscious parable. The strengths of The Sea-Wolf (and a number of similar works in London's canon) are those of the fable/parable. Characters undergoing initiatory experiences have been one of the great staples of major world literature. whether in the form of autobiography with a considerable fictional element (as in The Road and John Barleycorn) or in the form of fiction which is closely autobiographical (as in Martin Eden). for in Hump and Maud he has in fact created standard fictional types (effete and overrefined intellectuals) who undergo standard fictional transformations (they come to an understanding and use of strength in human affairs) and who thereby receive their just reward (survival and love). The difference between Larsen on the one hand and Hump and Maud on the other.characteristics which make The Call of the Wild so powerful a work: distinct moral types. symbolic setting (the ship and the sea in The SeaWolf). Hump and Maud fail because London's inadequacies as a writer of fiction lead him to formulaic constructs. figures whose natures and motives are probable and believable. The difference rather lies in London's ability to depict Wolf Larsen within the conventions of the fable/parable and his inability to deal with Hump and Maud within the conventions of the novel. including type characters. they are taken seriously by him as "realistic" fictional characters--that is. it should be clear. But London's effort to shape figures of this kind fails completely. whereas Wolf Larsen is acceptable and powerful because he is created and functions as a fabulistic type. does not lie in the inherent greater appeal of one kind of figure over another. and the whole mix pushing toward a fable/parable combination of worldly wisdom (the strong rule) and parable moralism (but not forever). Much of London's best writing is autobiographical. an allegorical narrative. London added some of the conventional ingredients of the novel in the characters and experiences of Humphrey Van Weyden and Maud Brewster. while the tyrannical sea captain has been a staple of superficial romance. who is unchanging in his beliefs and values. Whatever their origin in the conventions of popular initiation fiction of London's day. Unlike Larsen. To this fable/parable core. they are intended to be developing characters who undergo a significant transformation through experience. In short. It is true that in these works the brevity of the fable/parable is sacrificed to the fulness of detail 102 . he initially mistakes her for Truth because of her seeming spirituality. So in The Road. Other figures are even more programmatic. Martin Eden suggests how London adapts one of the principal impulses of autobiography--to give meaning to one's life by the selective use of the material of one's life--to create a moral allegory closely related to the form of the fable/parable. But in all other significant ways London adapts the conventions of the fable/parable to the needs of autobiographical expression and thereby achieves some striking successes. and in each the material of the experience is molded into a symbolic form which expresses a truth characteristic of the worldly wisdom of the fable. London chooses a specific area of his life for representation. and there is no plot--only obstacles. Martin's sister and brotherin-law. in John Barleycorn his obsession with alcohol documents the limitations of human control of desire. represent respectively family loyalty and grubbing materialism. evil if it hinders. Yet despite the blatancy of the allegorical mode in Martin Eden. Brissenden is Truth--the truth that art must be rebellious--and also Martin's Fate. In London's account of his attempt to become a successful writer. hazards. The work contains little complexity of characterization. since Martin's infatuation with the thought of Herbert Spencer signifies his need to find intellectual confirmation of his sense of himself as an independent being in a conforming world.characteristic of modern autobiography. but he eventually realizes her weak conventionality. Even ideas play a symbolic role in London's fable of the artist in America. while Ruth's family embodies upper class philistine smugness. Much of that which absorbs us in 103 . and momentary resting places in Martin's slow rise to knowledge and competency. even in such fully drawn figures as Ruth Morse and Russ Brissenden. Brissenden's early alcoholic death and his difficulty in gaining acceptance dramatize the condition and destiny of the artist in America. Ruth is Martin's False Guide in this climb. London's months as a hobo dramatize the process by which the concrete experience of injustice will stimulate a rebellion against it. is not as sweet as it seemed. and in Martin Eden his efforts to become a writer reveal that success. for example. In each of his best autobiographies. experience is good if it contributes to this goal. the work lives because blatancy in this instance is functional within the fable/parable form of the work. once gained. London's strength as a writer was not so much to tell a story as to tell a story in order to demonstrate the truth of a specific moral which revealed the way of the world but which also often instructed in the way of the heart. and as London's reputation further illustrates. 104 . the friendship of Martin and Brissenden plays this second role. temporarily victoriously over it. As in the best of his dog stories. and finally defeated by it.Martin Eden is attributable to its character as a fable of the American artist at odds with his world. but as the history of world literature demonstrates. (In Martin Eden. London in Martin Eden (as well as in The Road and John Barleycorn) writes powerfully in the fable/parable form both because he is writing instinctively and unconsciously within the conventions of this form and because he ignores most of the conventions of the ostensible form he is writing in while drawing profitably upon others. at his best he can engage us fully and permanently.) The writer of fables and parables may not be either original or profound. 105 . 3 Dreiser's only attempts at fiction before the summer of 1899 occurred in the winter and spring of 1895 when he wrote several stories after leaving the New York World and before becoming editor of Ev'ry Month. 2 In addition. But many aspects of Dreiser the artist remain relatively obscure or unexplored-- in particular his aesthetic beliefs and fictional techniques at various stages of his career. In view of these facts. Dreiser was a reporter on the St. A few weeks later he visited his fiancee. Sallie White. Louis. it is difficult to date its composition precisely. 1894. The next extant version of the story is a manuscript in the Los Angeles Public Library entitled "The Lynching of Nigger Jeff". who lived in a small town near St." Although "A Victim of Justice of justice" is clearly a work of the 1890s. he recalls a rural Missouri lynching that he had wit nessed "several years since. 1894. Dreiser's first attempt to write a story about the lynching of a Missouri Negro is preserved in an unpublished University of Virginia manuscript called "A Victim of Justice. Louis Republic in the winter of 1893-94. on July 23. it is possible to speculate that Dreiser wrote "A Victim of Justice" in early 1895 and that he combined in the story his memory of the January.Theodore Dreiser's "Nigger Jeff" THANKS TO THE work of Robert H. An excellent opportunity to study Dreiser's developing aesthetic lies in the existence of several versions of his short story "Nigger Jeff". This manuscript served. as the text for the November. and his visit to Missouri in the summer of 1894. 1901. with minor changes. The narrator of the story begins by noting that he has recently spent "a day in one of Missouri's pleasant villages. lynching. Elias and W. we are beginning to have an adequate sense of Dreiser's life. his July. " While visiting a Potter's Field. The extant versions of this story reveal with considerable clarity and force Dreiser's changing beliefs concerning the nature of fiction. article (from which he quoted several passages verbatim)." This opening situation is the product of a number of events of the mid-1890s. Swanberg. 1894. Dreiser wrote for the Pittsburgh Dispatch an article entitled "With the Nameless Dead" in which he described an Allegheny County Potter's Field. A. and it was during this period that he observed the lynching on which the story is based. 1918. however. Dreiser had begun writing stories in earnest during the summer of 1899. all have the same basic outline. each can be associated with an important segment of Dreiser's career. published in August. 7 He discovers that a farmer's daughter has been attacked by a Negro and that the farmer and his son are in pursuit of the Negro in order to lynch him. A young man is sent in early spring to investigate reports of a possible lynching in a rural Missouri community. 5 The fourth version of the story is Dreiser's revision of the Ainslee's version for inclusion in his Free and Other Stories. The Negro is apprehended by a local peace officer. 6 There are thus three major versions of "Nigger Jeff". when Dreiser collected and revised his stories for republication. and their differences can tell us much about Dreiser's developing aesthetic. The Virginia manuscript of the mid-1890s reflects the Dreiser depicted in A Book About Myself. The Ainslee's publication represents the Dreiser of Sister Carrie. Encouraged by his friend Arthur Henry. and he later recalled that "Nigger Jeff"-- that is. and returns with the Negro to its own community. Although none of these versions can be dated exactly. Since the changes in this last version are primarily additions to the Ainslee's text. overpowers the peace officer. the Dreiser of the essays of Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub ( 1920) and the Dreiser who was eventually to devote a large portion of his later career to philosophical inquiries. the Los Angeles Public Library-Ainslee's version--dates from this period. and is taken to another village for safekeeping until the arrival of reinforcements.publication of "Nigger Jeff" in Ainslee's Magazine. span the principal periods of Dreiser's career. The three versions. 106 . A mob gathers. and since this added material is not in the Los Angeles Public Library manuscript. the revision can be at tributed to the period shortly before the appearance of Free. The 1918 publication suggests a writer whose ideas have become increasingly self-conscious and polemical. Although the three versions of "Nigger Jeff" differ in a number of important ways. the young journalist who was viewing much of the tragic complexity of life but understanding little of it. The story has been rewritten by an author with a characteristic vision of life and with a distinctive fictional style. in short. "A Victim of Justice" has three major themes. wasted as sparks are wasted on the night wind. Nor do we have a sense of his involvement in the action of the story. bleak. Jim is a "poor varlet. "A Victim of Justice ". The story concludes with the second half of the frame device. The story opens with the unidentified narrator visiting a Potter's Field near a small Missouri town. the narrator is disturbed by the "grieving orisons" of an elderly woman. Before he can question her. she departs." Again the narrator broods over the vicissitudes of life. The Negro (named Jim in this version) is the victim of the "hasty illegalities" and "summary justice" of the mob. a burial place marked by a wooden cross. though his melancholy is lightened somewhat by the thought that nature is ever-beautiful even in this forsaken spot." and it is on this note that he introduces his recollections of the lynching. The first is suggested by the ironic title of the story and by several authorial comments. but he does not identify himself as a reporter. Life is sad. is told in the first person and uses a frame device. a fitting emblem of the barren life now forgotten. desolate. and he asks us to share this sentiment by imitating the prose of writers known 107 . a theme which arises out of the narrator's "meditations" in the graveyard. The second theme involves a more generalized sorrow over the fate of most men. But she has stimulated still further his moody reflections on the "wounding trials of life. " and the graveyard scene echoes the diction and sentence structure of a Hawthorne or an Irving. gray. "Day after day it stands. The following day the investigator visits the home of the Negro and views his body. The narrator describes the Negro's lonely grave on a hillside. telling us about the lynching (often in summary form) but devoid of personal participation.where he is hanged from a bridge. He begins by explaining that he was "commissioned to examine into the details" of the incident. Dreiser's earliest version of this story. Dreiser says. Dreiser's lugubrious exploitation of the conventional rhetoric of injustice and melancholy suggests that both themes have their source in the traditional literature of sentiment. After much soulful lament over the "strange exigencies of life" that have brought the denizens of the graveyard to their mournful fate. His narrative "voice" is principally an omniscient authorial voice. Davies is at first a passive observer of these events. Thus. focuses on the experiences of a young reporter. The story.for their ability to evoke melancholic moods. a scene which is 108 . since they are extraneous to the explicit themes imposed upon the story by the narrator. the terror of the Negro. though he depicted the lynching as a moving event. The peace officer could have been a coward and Jim brave and unflinching. In a sense these emotions constitute a suppressed or unacknowledged theme. when he encounters Jeff's weeping mother. The Ainslee's version of "Nigger Jeff" omits the frame sections. he accompanies the mob back to Pleasant Valley. the reporter uncontrollably "clapped his hands over his mouth and worked his fingers convulsively. terrified Jeff is seized by the mob. he was unable to recognize what moved him in the lynching. The hanging itself stuns him into a deep torpor. now told in the third person. Arriving in Pleasant Valley. But when the blubbering. The third theme of the story is that of the powerful human emotions that arise out of the lynching itself--the quest for vengeance by the father. self- confident Davies undertakes his assignment with relish. he confused the nature of his response with those "deep" emotions readily available to him in traditional literary forms. His "true" response is "buried" within the narrative of the lynching. By the close of the story. and the narrator would still have been able to enclose the story within his reflections on injustice and melancholy. climactic scene of the story." 9 "Sick at heart" (373). 8 who has been sent to look into a possible lynching. In Nigger Jeff he reserved introducing her grief until the final. he has viewed a wide range of character and emotion--the competent. the resoluteness of the peace officer. These reflections may be apt responses to a lynching. the cowardly mob. he is drawn into the events of the lynching as he pursues his story. strongwilled sheriff. and above all the terrified Jeff and his heartbroken mother. but Dreiser's failure to integrate them into the account of the lynching itself implies that he has indeed imposed them on his response. Eugene Davies. In A Victim of Justice Dreiser mentioned the grieving mother early in the narrative but not afterward. the father intent on vengeance. It is a beautiful spring day and the insouciant. for Dreiser at this point was unable to articulate his response-that is. present only in brief summary form in the earlier version. oh. he hesitated. he hears a noise in the room. feelingly. even more plaintively than before. "'I'll get that in. the conception of the theme and form of art symbolized by the "it" in the last sentence of Nigger Jeff contains three major elements." was repeated. almost indistinguishable crouching against the cold walls. oh. he saw it all. Briefly. Greatly disturbed. and a belief that these emotions adopt a certain pattern in life and therefore in art.. huddred up. each rendered in dramatic form within the story. It was in the extreme corner. 109 ." the story is also the dramatization of the birth of an aesthetic.' he exclaimed. These are: a belief that two emotions in particular pervade all life. doubled up and weeping. She was in the very niche of the corner.. Davies began to understand. dark. Let me discuss each of these beliefs more fully. As Davies views Jeff's body. 'I'll get it all in'" (375). Then he made out an old black mammy. a belief that these emotions are often found in moral and social contexts which lend them a special poignancy. her head sunk on her knees. The narrative is now primarily an initiation story--the coming into knowledge of the tragic realities of life by the viewer.. in which the narrator presents us with a response to a lynching. the tragedy. "Oh. He approached lightly. (375) On leaving the cabin. and then as his eyes strained he caught the shadow of something. her tears falling. her body rocking to and fro. Davies "swelled with feeling and pathos. Nigger Jeff dramatizes a growth in emotional responsiveness by the principal viewer of the action. Dreiser has thus shifted the axis of the story. Unlike A Victim of Justice. beginning with the central emotions of life as Dreiser depicts them in this story. the grief. And since the viewer is a reporter who will attempt to "get it all in. The night. "He said he wanted tuh see motha'. suh. a poor.. boss. "Didn't he know he might get caught?" asked Davies. It is the first flush of spring." (374) The son come back to say good-by to the mother. the mother mourning over the son's body--here is emotion which in its over- powering intensity parallels the sex drive itself. Although sexual desire may not lead to the destruction of such figures as Frank Cowperwood. When Davies arrives at Jeff's home after the lynching. and looking down. It is the force which binds the Gerhardt family together. where he had been captured by the waiting sheriff. he asks the Negro's sister why Jeff had returned to his cabin. holding the poor battered lamp up. "To see us. and Jeff. I think he did. suh. He was a-goin' away. In Nigger Jeff this force appears not only in the relationship between Jeff and his mother but also in the figure of the 110 .. which is the final refuge of Clyde Griffiths. Hurstwood. In addition. "Yes. Lester Kane. did he want anything? He didn't come just to see you. I didn't go to do it. Eugene Witla." Her voice wavered.One such emotion is sexual desire. what did he have to say?" asked Davies." said the girl. and which creates the tragic tension of Solon Barnes's loss of his children.. uncontrollable force in almost all of Dreiser's principal male characters. "he come to say good-by. "Well. and Clyde Griffiths are at its mercy." She stood very quietly. it is nevertheless a dominant. "Well. attacks a white girl--a girl who knows him and whom he meets in a lane." said the girl." he cries to the mob (372). "'Before God. the "it" of the final sentence includes the unthinking love and loyalty which exist within a family and particularly between a mother and a child. I didn't mean to. ignorant Negro. di he?" "Yes. and the young reporter comes to realize the "tragedy" of their fate. the principal figures in Nigger Jeff have little of the heroic about them. These realities do not lend "nobility" to Dreiser's figures. But their capacity to feel combined with their incapacity to act wisely or well is to Dreiser the very stuff of man's tragic nature. the grief. Davies's awakening to their reality can be interpreted as Dreiser's declaration of belief in the dominance of these emotions in human affairs. Nigger Jeff thus contains two of the most persistent themes in all of Dreiser's work--the power of desire and the power of family love and loyalty. he saw it all. that man can desire. like Jeff." The sensuality of youth. The second major aspect of Dreiser's aesthetic contained in the final "it" involves the moral and social context in which these emotions are found. Although Dreiser depicts the mob as cowardly and sensation. he respects the motives of the father. the tragedy. But the major figures in Nigger Jeff. the family love taking its shape in sorrow--these appear in Dreiser's work as complementary autobiographical themes until they coalesce most fully and powerfully both in Dawn and in An American Tragedy. Both victim and revenger are caught up in the same inexplicable emotional oneness which is a family. and that a mother or father can mourn. To Dreiser. The realization which the young reporter must "get in" 111 . there appears in The Lynching of Nigger Jeff: "It was spring no less than sorrow that ran whispering in his blood.seeking. Like most of Dreiser's characters. they are often weak and comtemptible despite their fate. tragedy arises out of the realities that nature is beautiful. despite their often grotesque inadequacies." Immediately following The night. feel and suffer. His ability to identify himself with these emotions as early as Nigger Jeff is revealed by a sentence omitted in Ainslee's but present in the Los Angeles Public Library manuscript of The Lynching of Nigger Jeff.assaulted girl's father. in his later autobiographies Dreiser depicted these emotions as two of the principal inner realities of his own youth. foaming brute" (372). Indeed. Jeff himself is described at the moment of his capture by the mob as a "groveling. Even the sheriff loses his potential for such a role once he is easily tricked by the mob and complacently accepts its victory. That is. sometimes by other motives--who finds at the end of the novel that he has returned to where he started: Carrie still seeking beauty and happiness. The word "it" at the close of Nigger Jeff has some of the same quality. Solon returning to the simplicity of faith. The word symbolizes a deeply felt aesthetic which Dreiser never explained as well elsewhere. The third aspect of the aesthetic symbolized by the final "it" concerns the pattern assumed by the two principal emotions of the story. too. The passions which have driven the narrative forward in its sequence of crime and punishment are dissipated. has come full circle. Jennie once again alone despite her immense capacity to love. Despite his reputation as stylistically inept. the changes in the Free 112 . such as the rocking chair in Sister Carrie and the street scene in An American Tragedy. These otherwise banal abstractions represent the complexity and depth of experience depicted in the novels concerned. and Jeff returns to where he has started both physically and emotionally. Dreiser occasionally makes this structural principle explicit by a consciously circular symbol. He. the bleak room in which he rests and his mother keening over his body represent the permanent realities of his life and his death. Dreiser was capable of a provocative and moving verbal symbolism.thus involves not only the truths of lust and of mother love but also the truth that the experience of these emotions gives meaning and poignancy to every class and condition of man. It is possible to visualize Dreiser's novels as a graphic irony--the characters believe they are pushing forward but they are really moving in a circle. Nigger Jeff contains a rough approximation of this pattern. and they are therefore powerfully evocative. This quality appears in his use of "beauty" in connection with Carrie at the close of Sister Carrie and in his use of "life" in the next to last paragraph of The Bulwark ("'I am crying for life'"). The Free version of Nigger Jeff omits almost nothing from the Ainslee's text. Clyde still walled in. Aside from stylistic revisions. just as he never discussed "beauty" and "life" in his philosophical writings as well as he dramatized their meaning for him in his novels. Cowperwood's millions gone. Most of Dreiser's novels involve a seeker or quester--sometimes driven by desire. Davies had heard this so long in his youth that he had come nearly to believe it. if one did. only the good truly rewarded-- or Mr. One such extension is revealed in Dreiser's addition to the first sentence of the story (here and elsewhere the added material appears in brackets): The city editor was waiting for one of his best reporters. extend the themes of the story in two significant ways. Some of the additions. in which the putative reader is placed in the position of Davies. In these and similar additions Dreiser has extended the nature of Davies's initiation. But in the Free Nigger Jeff this theme is both more overt and more central. Elmer Davies [by name. a vain and rather self-sufficient youth who was inclined to be of that turn of mind which sees in life only a fixed and ordered process of rewards and punishments. Only the so-called evil were really punished. In the Ainslee's version. many of which merely flesh out particular scenes. In a sense even A Victim of Justice contains an aspect of this theme. Its presence in this enlarged and emphatic form suggests Dreiser's in creasing tendency throughout the later stages of his career (beginning about 1911) to associate the function of art with the explicit inversion of conventional moral and social beliefs. If one did not do exactly right. Davies's growth is above all that of his awakening to the tragic nature of human experience. The Free version associates this awakening with his conscious awareness that moral absolutes are based on naivete or inexperience and are inapplicable to the complex realities of life.] 10 By the next to last paragraph of the story. On the contrary. one did not get along well. however. Like the 113 .version consist of additions. since Dreiser in that version noted the injustice of the "summary justice" of mob rule. one did. It is during this period that Dreiser the polemicist (as revealed in Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub) and Dreiser the novelist combine to produce An American Tragedy. Davies has come to realize that "[it was not always exact justice that was meted out to all and that it was not so much the business of the writer to indict as to interpret]" (111). also. howev er. so inexplicable]" (105). associated this law with the harsh extermination of the weak. It was like some axiomatic. It also was axiomatic. so mysterious. so strange. mechanical and therefore terrible thing. the reader's faith in the American dream of success and in the workings of justice is destroyed by encountering the reality of a tragedy. Dreiser the mechanist called this law an "equation inevitable" in Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub. As Davies accompanies the mob on its way to hang Jeff. Davies's 114 . His particular conception of law at various stages of his later career. But by the end of his career Dreiser the quasi pantheist had come to call it "design" in The Bulwark and to associate it primarily with beauty and with cosmic benevolence. moved on. On the one hand. Still. mathematic law--hard. And both are present in The Bulwark. mathematic" (103). During the period from approximately 1910 to the late 1920s he often. an articulated. the destructiveness and the continuity. is perhaps less important than his enduring search for a principle of meaning which would encompass the cruelty and the beauty. Both attitudes--the search for meaning and the belief in mystery--are present in Hey Rub- a-Dub-Dub. custom seemed to require death in this way for this. After the hanging. which he found in life. In his Free version of Nigger Jeff Dreiser has thus expanded his aesthetic to include not only an explicit ironic reversal of moral certainties but also a dramatization of the vast philosophical paradoxes underlying all life. the injury to the daughter and sister not so vital as all this. but custom. Davies sits near the bridge and muses: "[Life seemed so sad. The silent company. in which the often doctrinaire mechanistic philosophizing is counterbalanced by the subtitle of the work: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life. On the other hand. he believed that every phase of life is governed by law. he reflects that "[both father and son now seemed brutal. in which Solon's discovery of the principle of design is inseparable from his discovery of the mystery of life. Dreiser affirmed throughout his later career a belief in the essential mystery at the heart of life. as in the Free Nigger Jeff.naive beliefs of Davies. These additions reflect two of the principal areas of Dreiser's philosophical speculation during the last half of his career. A second major extension of theme in the Free "Nigger Jeff occurs in the scenes following the capture of Jeff by the mob. 11 He is a writer.discovery of what art must do--"[to interpret]"--now has a conscious philosophical element which was to play an ever increasing role in Dreiser's career. since most of his overt comments about art are either vague or overpolemical. The various versions of Nigger Jeff which I have been discussing incorporate Dreiser's principal beliefs about the nature of art." Nevertheless. 115 . whose stories and novels in their various revisions can often be explored for the complex intertwining of permanence and change characteristic of the creative work of a major literary figure. in other words. Moreover. No doubt there is room for qualification of some of the generalizations about Dreiser's developing aesthetic which I have drawn from this study of the three versions of Nigger Jeff. there is a special need for this kind of attempt. the three versions reflect much that is central in Dreiser's thought and in his practice as a writer. there is much to be said for the attempt to deduce a writer's beliefs about art directly from a creative work dealing with the nature of art rather than from his literary criticism. For Dreiser. we have come to realize that Dreiser is not only a writer of stature (as Alfred Kazin maintained) but also of finesse (as Ellen Moers believed). From the imposed sentimentality of A Victim of Justice to the moral polemicism and incipient philosophizing of the Free Nigger Jeff. which had elevated a narrowly conceived mode of depicting the observable world to the status of an aesthetic and cultural absolute." (1) there nonetheless remains very little in our experience of the arts even in this first decade of the twenty-first century that can be separated from the traditions that were established by what used to be called the modern movement but that nowadays tend to be known collectively as modernism. In its heyday. What it mainly rejected in the pictorial arts were the moribund conventions of nineteenth-century academic instruction. As far as painting and sculpture are concerned. and explicit references to historical precedent. ideas. Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940: In the half-century between 1886. and the beginning of the Second World War. It encompassed a broad range of styles. which by my reckoning dates from the 1880s to the 1950s. the date of the last Impressionist exhibition. it was as easily identified by the traditions it rejected as by the innovations it embraced. and a variety of anti-styles we associate with the legacy of Marcel Duchamp and Dadaism. As I shall be using the term here--that is.Chapter 3: Modernism & its institutions. the implications of which are admirably summarized in George Heard Hamilton's introduction to his classic history. from realism and symbolism to pure abstraction. modernism introduced a radical revision in the very concept of representation. a change took place in the theory and practice of art which was as radical and momentous as any that had occurred in human history. or impact. What modernism rejected in architecture was ornament. decorative embellishments. Although we have lately been advised that "the days when one could sit down with an easy mind to write an account of something called modernism are over. It was based on the belief that works of art need not imitate or represent natural objects and 116 . modernism as a movement in literature as well as the visual arts--it was never monolithic in style. nor devalued because of their lack of likeness. These innovations entailed a rejection of nineteenth-century narrative conventions in favor of more hermetic literary structures based on myth. however. On the large and thorny question of modernism's content and its relation to modernist form. there was ample reason to be cautious about publicizing the content of certain modernist works. (2) What was most conspicuously embraced by modernism in the literary arts were so-called free verse (vers libre) in poetry. in a period when even as blameless a book of short stories as Joyce's Dubliners met with refusal by its first printers on the grounds that certain passages were deemed to employ improper language. which was introduced to literature in English by James Joyce but was made more accessible to public comprehension by the popularization of Freudian psychoanalytical therapy. Therefore artistic activity is not essentially concerned with representation but instead with the invention of objects variously expressive of human experience. an attempt would be made to minimize the sometimes controversial content of modernism--not only its sexual explicitness but its political provocations as well. events. After all. too. It was. which entailed an abandonment of traditional rhyme and meter. it must also be said that certain 117 . in any case. owing to the resolute and often vindictive resistance that such innovations met with in the arena of public taste. than in prose fiction. it was probably inevitable that ways would be sought to circumvent that resistance. and the "stream of consciousness" technique in fiction. to natural things. objects whose structures as independent artistic entities cannot be evaluated in terms of their likeness. symbolism. that in the early history of these institutions. especially modern poetry. and other devices more commonly found in poetry. and a masterpiece like Ulysses was legally banned in the United States. Moreover. in direct response to such prohibitions that the modernist impulse was driven to create institutions of its own in order to safeguard the survival and prosperity of its aesthetic initiatives. It was probably inevitable. and Willem de Kooning suggest. "Subject . for example. in my view. that the content in the creation of a work of art is "very tiny" would have sounded absurd. perhaps one should say enterprise out of respect for which one says one need not change one's mind about a thing one has believed in. and indignation prompted by the subject of matrimony is anything but "incidental. What.modernists have themselves been complicit in minimizing its content even under conditions where prudence was no longer required." Its treatment is ferocious. requiring public promises of one's intention to fulfill a private obligation: I wonder what Adam and Eve 118 . Wallace Stevens. when he returned to a mode of abstraction that was sadly depleted of both form and content. obviously in reference to abstract painting. The ferocity with which de Kooning attacked his subject in the Women series left no one in doubt about the importance of its content--both for the artist and viewer--and the unraveling of de Kooning's talent in the aftermath of the Women paintings. as the epigraphs quoted above from Georges Braque. but elsewhere Moore's poetry positively bristles with difficult subjects. only underscored the point.. occupies a place in Moore's literary oeuvre akin to that of The Waste Land in Eliot's- the intensity. as the poem's opening lines attest: This institution. In the early masterpiece from the 1920s called Marriage--a work that. when de Kooning exhibited the first of his sensational Women paintings at the Sidney Janis Gallery. the much quoted claim made ten years earlier. then. Wallace Stevens's observation that in the poetry of Marianne Moore. is often incidental.. were the institutions that were either created or commandeered to accommodate modernism's battle of the Absolutes? Similarly. For anyone who was present on the New York art scene in 1953." may indeed apply to some of the poet's minor later work. with their one-man shows of new art." requiring all one's criminal ingenuity to avoid! In a new edition of The Poems of Marianne Moore. his too had been a pursuit of the Absolute. Show-type of large international exhibitions that grew out of the various 119 . like so many other modernists. committing many spoils. the "little magazines" literary quarterlies and small presses without which modernist literature would never have prospered. the art galleries. only to disclose in the end that. 2003). What. the creation of which was owed to Braque's collaboration with Picasso? It might even be said that Braque created the foundation upon which these firebrands were able to take their stand. how bright it shows--" of circular traditions and impostures. were the institutions that were either created or commandeered to accommodate modernism's battle of the Absolutes? Some of them have become so well established as fixtures of our cultural landscape that we can hardly imagine a time when they didn't exist--among them. and the Armory. Braque's version of the Absolute no doubt differed from that of the true firebrands of modernism--among them. and it was characteristic of his moral delicacy to wrap his statement about the artist's subject in a mantle of modesty. this fire-gilt steel alive with goldenness. Mies van der Rohe. edited by Grace Schulman (Viking. Marriage runs to eight and a half pages. and remains to its very last lines one of the most caustic poems in the language--one of the scariest. Ad Reinhardt. the art museums that vie with each other for the privilege of being the first to embrace what is certain to be controversial. think of it by this time. the more problematic writers' "workshops" which seem now to have degenerated into an academic racket. then. Georges Braque was a far gentler soul than either Willem de Kooning or Marianne Moore. and Donald Judd--yet where would any of them have been without the prior existence of Cubism. Piet Mondrian. too. non-institutional collectors. except that they make the official representatives of literature a little uneasy. the innumerable "little magazines" have been a natural and heroic response. (3) Now. is Partisan Review. and no one would venture to say in a precise way just effect they have--except that they keep the new talents warm until the commercial with his customary air of noble resolution is ready to take his chance. the kind of "little magazine" he described in that essay is virtually extinct- -as. From the elegant and brilliant Dial to the latest little scrub from the provinces. they have kept our culture from being cautious and settled. Some literary quarterlies have survived. 120 . they have done their work. small presses. They are snickered at and snubbed. of course. or merely pious."independent" and "secessionist" modernist movements of a century or more ago. or merely sociological. nearly sixty years after Trilling wrote "The Function of the Little Magazine" to mark the tenth anniversary of Partisan Review. they have tried to keep the roads open. just as the little magazines. except that they keep a countercurrent moving which perhaps no one will be fully aware of until it ceases to move. but diminished in number and--with the shining exception of The Hudson Review--in quality as the blight of deconstructionist. sometimes deservedly. Virtually all of these art institutions were created by artists working in collaboration with amateur. Since the beginning of the [twentieth] century. and literary quarterlies were created by poets and critics who understood that mainstream publishers were not in a position to respond to the challenges of modernist literature without the kind of spadework that only non-institutional amateurs could provide. As Lionel Trilling wrote in his essay "The Function of the Little Magazine": To the general lowering of the status of literature and of the interest in it. meeting difficulties of which only their editors can truly conceive. we find that virtually all of the major houses in this country are now wholly owned subsidiaries of foreign conglomerates whose standard of achievement has less to do with literary quality or innovation than with access to media promotion. Exactly how it came to pass that a nation as prosperous as ours could not summon the resources to resist the takeover of its book-publishing industry" by an ailing Europe remains to be explained. Indeed. In some respects. we can still count on a number of smaller presses and some of the better university presses to save the situation.post-structuralist. Eliot and Ezra Pound--it looks like a Golden Age compared to the kind of academic obscurantism and political shadow-boxing that have supplanted it. When we look back today on the much-maligned New Criticism. when possible. S. As for the fate of literature itself in the hands of the mainstream book publishers. to anticipate and assist in creating a demand for them--was itself a 121 . the institutions that now serve the visual arts-- especially the museums and the galleries--might seem to present a much rosier prospect. and other coefficients of high profitability. Mercifully. and we shall be obliged to suffer its consequences for a long time to come. movie and television tie-ins. and other varieties of anti-literary "theory" has triumphed over literary intelligence. prize- winning. headlong and often heedless expansion of both collections and exhibition space and the funds required to support them has been the rule in the art museums for some years now. This museological scenario is now so familiar to us that we sometimes forget that the compulsion on the part of museums to keep abreast of radical innovations in contemporary art--and even. for even in periods of low economic growth they have continued to prosper. Modernist art of various persuasions has been the driving force as well as the principal beneficiary of this very expensive expansiveness as museums have hastened to respond to new artistic developments while at the same time attempting to catch up on the earlier innovations they missed out on. T. but the downside of this benefit usually entails significantly reduced royalties for the worthy writers who do get published. which was largely the creation of modernist poets--among them. but that takeover is now a fait accompli. worked as a guard in the Museum of Non- Objective Painting in its early days--the Guggenheim initiated the first of its ongoing efforts to reinvent itself--a project that has left the museum stripped of anything that can be called an identity and required. the theatrical lighting. the crowds. just as its influence in that respect was contributing something important to the emergence of Abstract Expressionist painting in New York--the young Jackson Pollock. and the general atmosphere of vulgarity. with its once incomparable collection of paintings by Vasily Kandinsky. there are the proliferating productions of Charles Saatchi's gang of YBA's--Young British Artists--and the Tate's own atrocious Turner-Prize-winners. When we enter a monstrosity like Tate Modern in London nowadays. among other depredations. Today it is 122 . certainly not a compelling priority. among other artists. our own Solomon R. in effect. Unlike the old Tate Gallery.momentous innovation in the way museums come to identify their interests and responsibilities. and tumult that art has been used as a bait to attract a segment of the public--free-spending youth--for which aesthetic achievement is. Guggenheim Museum has not had to change its name but only its character to adjust to the new entrepreneurial standard. not only in the objects acquired for their collections but in the careers and celebrity of the artists who created them. we are straightaway put on notice by the noise. I wonder how many of the people who went to ogle Matthew Barney's freak show at the Guggenheim have any idea that this museum. (Its original name was the Museum of Non- Objective Painting. And to assure a steady supply of the only kind of new art that is guaranteed to be a turn-on for this public. was founded in 1930 as an institution devoted to the achievements of abstract painting. if not a matter of indifference. Hence the elements of hucksterism and entrepreneurial cynicism that have coarsened the character and spirit of so much museum activity today.) Yet. not only collectors but promoters of the art in which they were now seen to have a vested interest--a vested interest. who can be counted upon to maintain the requisite standard of titillation. For it obligated the museums to become. that is. the sale of a great many of its Kandinsky holdings and works by other modernist masters. for a reduced exhibition schedule. Meanwhile. among other losses. and a theater on East Twenty-third Street in Manhattan for its popular film program. Given the theme-park character that governed the organization of MOMA2000. it is owing to the debacle of the museum's MOMA2000 exhibitions. the museum and its public are making do with an abridged. unappealing facility in Long Island City.an institution better known for its exhibitions of Norman Rockwell and Harley Davidson motorcycles and its branch museums abroad than for anything that advances an understanding of modernist art. we can only speculate about what this expansion will bring in the way MOMA'S permanent collection--and thus modernism itself--is to be presented to the public for the remainder of the twenty- first century. Two of the other New York institutions that were founded to serve the interests of modernist art--the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art--are also at a crossroads that will determine their future course but for very different reasons. one of the biggest in its history. which radically recast the history of MOMA's permanent collection to conform it to a "new narrative" emphasizing social content at the expense of aesthetic innovation. It thus remains to be seen whether Mr. it is mainly because John Elderfield--no doubt one of the most qualified senior curators in the field today--has been called upon to head the curatorial committee that will oversee the installation of MOMA'S permanent collection in its new building. If there is also good reason to be anxious about the outcome. This was a shift in perspective that. had the effect of consigning the history of abstract art--one of the central developments of modernist art--to the sidelines. Elderfield will have sufficient authority to rectify such disastrous errors of judgment in the newly expanded MOMA. 123 . MOMA is now in the throes of yet another of its periodic expansion plans. At this point. MOMAQNS. there was no way that the aesthetics of abstraction could be given its due. and this is expected to provide the museum with far more space for the showing of its permanent collection as well as its temporary exhibitions program when the expansion is completed in 2005. If there is good reason to be hopeful about this outcome. Its celebrated scandals and audacities have passed into the possession of the academic curriculum. It doesn't change anything. A good place to start would be either the overhaul or the outright abandonment of the Whitney's Biennial exhibitions. Its recent history. alas. has been so dismal that almost any change is likely to be a change for the better. Weinberg. There was a period. which in recent years have gone from being merely ludicrous to wholly contemptible. and otherwise processed for doctoral dissertations and classroom instruction. The good news is that the Whitney's plan for a harebrained expansion of its own has been cancelled for financial reasons. and the appointment of Adam D. marked by a succession of incompetent directors and a board of trustees that seemed at times to have lost its mind. however. In a culture like ours. of course. the 1913 Armory Show in New York. As for the international exhibitions like Documenta in Germany and the monster Biennials in Venice and Sao Paulo. in which. the conditions necessary for the emergence of a genuine avant-garde no longer exist. when exhibitions like the 1910 Post-Impressionism exhibition in London. to be catalogued. they have now become the kind of cultural dinosaurs that have no useful functions to perform and therefore no reason to exist. The pathetic attempts at artistic insolence. we can only speculate. 124 . for the Whitney to win back the respect it has lost among artists as well as the critics and the public. too. But the age of the avant-garde is long gone. everything is now permitted and nothing resisted. as the museum's new director gives us reason to expect significant improvement. that turn up in the Whitney's Biennial exhibitions and the art departments of the colleges and universities are better understood as efforts to attract publicity and what in the business world is called market share than as anything that can be regarded as avant-garde.About the future of the Whitney Museum. to adopt the term "transgressive" as a substitute for "avant-garde" for where boundaries no longer exist it is impossible to violate them. It will not be easy. mostly having to do with sexual imagery and political ideology. really did bring the public news of important avant-garde developments in modernist art. codified. and the 1938 International Exposition of Surrealism in Paris. either. a former curator at the Whitney. Hans Hofmann. Greenberg wrote: Mrs. In this connection. but for many of us the art galleries have been a fundamental part of our aesthetic education. but then she is not. Far more important to sustaining the aesthetic vitality of modernist art. however. In 1955. Barnett Newman. and the big international shows are mainly devoted to marketing and politics. I have seldom been able to bring her gallery into focus as part of the commercial apparatus of art (I am not sneering at that apparatus). it is worth recalling Clement Greenberg's tribute to the late Betty Parsons. in any case. whose gallery introduced Jackson Pollock. with art critics or museum directors either). and Richard Pousette-Dart. It keeps the public in constant touch not only with current developments on the art scene but also with revivals of the work of earlier artists that the museums and the critics may have overlooked or underrated. among other artists. rather. barely a century old. primarily a dealer. it is the gallery dealer. for that matter. to gallerygoers of my generation. This is a cultural service more often enjoyed than acknowledged. and it does so at no financial cost to the viewer. and it performs a service for art unlike that of any other institution. It is not a virtue signally associated with art dealers (or. Modern systems of communication have. at least for me. for nowadays most curators make their "discoveries" in the dealers' galleries. I think of it as belonging more to the studio and production 125 . has been the institution that we do not usually even think of as an institution: I mean the commercial art gallery. on the tenth anniversary of the Betty Parsons Gallery. after all. Parsons has never lacked for courage. a modern creation. More often than not. Today there is no avant-garde. rendered the big international shows irrelevant. The art gallery as we know it today is. not the museum curator. who discovers significant new talent."Transgressive" is a term that belongs to the history of publicity rather than the history of art. Mark Rothko. but merely to point out that in New York. or some other academic. At every stage in the history of modernism in America. as modernity itself has aged. it was the galleries that set the pace in recognizing artistic achievement. so was a gallery like Betty Parsons' in a tradition that grew out of the precedents set by Vollard and Kahnweiler in Paris and Alfred Stieglitz's "291" gallery. its wrong-headedness? For the entire concept of postmodernism is based on a fundamental misconception--a belief that the modernist era in art and culture is over and has been supplanted by something radically different. which introduced Cezanne and Matisse as well as Marsden Hartley and John Marin to the New York public even before the Armory Show and long before the museums awakened to the achievements of modernism. Parsons is an artist's--and critic's--gallery: a place where art goes on and is not just shown and sold. rather. pop-oriented. gender theory. Or should I say. initially. (4) Just as modernist art in America was. What we find this usually means when we get down to specific cases is a mode of art or thought in which some element of modernist sensibility has been corrupted by kitsch. social theory. anyway. an extension and appropriation of European modernism. side of art. shock was never the essence of modernism. it is inevitable--or at least expected--in any discussion of modernism that the question of "postmodernism" will rear its ugly head. anti-aesthetic intervention. politics. and in the process modernism has undeniably lost its capacity to shock or otherwise disturb us. we are blessed with an extraordinary number of galleries that are places "where art goes on." and they should be given their due in any account of modernism and its institutions. Finally. Mrs. an inspired and highly 126 . But except for the short-lived antics of Dada and Surrealism. The same could be said of the Weyhe Gallery's efforts on behalf of Gaston Lachaise mad Alfred Maurer and the exhibitions devoted to Stuart Davis at Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery. In a sense like that in which a painter is referred to as a painter's painter or a poet as a poet's poet. It was. Modernism has aged to be sure. This is not to suggest that all of our art dealers are sainted figures. Modernism endures. will modernism and its institutions continue to prosper in the face of the nihilist imperatives of the postmodernist scam. (3) The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society by Lionel Trilling (Viking Press. It is in this sense. page 9. 1951).successful attempt to bring art and culture into an affective and philosophical alignment with the mindset of modernity as we know it in our daily lives. 127 . perhaps. anyway. Looking back on the history of modernism in the twentieth century. (1) Art in Its Time: Theories and Practice of Modern Aesthetics by Paul Mattick (Routledge. page 97. And just as modernism survived the determined efforts of Hitler and Stalin to impugn and destroy its artistic achievements. largely because postmodernism is nothing but a mindset of deconstructive attitudes in search of a mission. so. (4) "Foreword to the Tenth Anniversary Exhibition of the Betty Parsons Gallery. has created no institutions of its own. that the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition that Hitler devoted to modernist art in Munich in 1937 may now be seen to have marked the beginning of the "postmodernist" impulse. by virtue of the institutions it has created to serve the needs of a public that is today more enlightened intellectually and aesthetically than at any other time in our history. Postmodernism." in Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism (University of Chicago Press. 2003). in contrast. I believe. page 256. And if we ask the question of what it was about modernist art that prompted such a massively destructive response. what is especially striking is the violence that was directed against its achievements by the most horrific totalitarian regimes in recorded history: the Nazis in Hiders Germany and the Communists in Stalin's Russia. 1993). page 15. Volume 3. and does so. (2) Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940 by George Heard Hamilton (Yale University Press. I believe the answer is clear: modernist art was seen to provide a spiritual and emotional haven from the coercive and conformist pressures of the societies in which it flourished. 1967). Modernism represented a freedom of mind that totalitarian regimes could not abide. in part. which must be sifted out. false modesty: it is simply amazement. the bottom of the barrel. condemned. but from a devoted body of readers and scholars? What is the source and nature of Faulkner's magic? Tonight I should like to offer one answer to that question.Faulkner In April. a little trash comes up constantly now. . when Faulkner was trying to finish his ambitious novel A Fable. but still it helps to explain one source of 128 . the work apart from me. and scholarly papers. Faulkner's work. It has been described. . But there is one question. I know now--believe now--that this may be the last major. It is not. I dont know where it came from. . indexed. or exalted in an uncounted number of monographs. 1953. there will be short things. The stuff is still good. . so different from the daily character of Bill Faulkner the countryman. . Working at the big book [he said]. diagramed. Believe me. of course. analyzed. this is not humility. let alone literary. yet to have made the things I made. I repeat. praised. Why has Faulkner's work the power to call forth this overwhelming response-not from all readers. has been the subject of a vast and still growing body of scholarship. most of which can be consulted in the Mississippi Room of the university library. the only answer. I mean. The stuff is still good. ambitious work. at least. explicated. at last. I have some perspective on all I have done. companions. And now. . of course. to which this army of critics and scholars has failed to give adequate answers-for of course there is more than one answer. And now I realize for the first time what an amazing gift I had: uneducated in every formal sense. concorded. but I know now that I am getting toward the end. selected me to be the vessel. without even very literate. dissertations. he wrote a significant letter to his friend Joan Williams. I dont know why God or gods or whoever it was. but I know now that there is not very much more of it. the work which I did apart from what I am. I wonder if you have ever had that thought about the work and the country man whom you know as Bill Faulkner--what little connection there seems to be between them. or outcasts. with the successive events taking place. magic potions. wise old men or women. loyal retainers. invincible weapons. The magical or mythopoeic side of Faulkner's work has been passed over in silence by many of his critics. His work appeals to something deep in his readers because he is a great mythopoeist. The story often involves superhuman or magical elements. Trees. initiations. rivers. monsters. while combining them with his sharp conscious observations and retentive memory of everything he experienced. they may be holy fools. but it omits many elements of myths in a broader sense. A myth. but they always move against the background of a human community. flights. not by the usual laws of cause and effect. witches. possibly--or so it is conjectured by many anthropologists--be cause they correspond to patterns preexisting in the human unconscious. mountains. as do wise animals. is "a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice. They are almost always full of objects and incidents that have a symbolic value of the sort that psychologists find in dreams. but in any case it follows a ritual pattern. Myths all over the world have an astonishing similarity. descents into the underworld. according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. deadly perils. 129 . princesses. Often they exert a powerful effect on their hearers. or of the sometimes inhuman wilderness. and sacrifices. heroes. belief or natural phenomenon. forests. more than any other American author since Melville. and strongholds keep recurring in them. villains. Nevertheless. dragons. surely his two books on Faulkner are the most comprehensive and levelheaded. Mythical characters seem larger than ordinary people. he was able to use the rich resources of his unconscious. who feel that they are participants in a sacred drama with an ending ordained since the beginning of time. or mythmaker." That is a serviceable definition. fetishes. talismans. They may be gods. who is perhaps the best of them.Faulkner's power. pursuits. atonements. I cite for example Cleanth Brooks. but because they are preordained. He became a great mythmaker because. ancestors. therefore--Brooks says in effect-the downfall of his house cannot be interpreted as a tragic fable of southern history. at moments. Then slowly it dawns on you that most of the characters and incidents have a double meaning. Colonel Sutpen. is not a representative southern planter and that he embodies the Protestant ethic in a fashion more likely to be found in the North. Sutpen's great design. that besides their place in the story. Absalom!. . the French architect who built his house with the help of wild 130 . Why should Brooks demand that symbols must correspond at all points with events in the foreground of a story? If Sutpen had been a representative southern planter. Instead he makes the point that the herovillain. especially of those suggested to an author by his largely unconscious mind. The reader cannot help wondering why this somber and. but it leads the critic to what I feel is a false conclusion. and so does the average perceptive reader. comes to regard it more and more as having an emblematic meaning and as being essentially southern. we cannot doubt that Quentin Compson." as Miss Rosa Coldfield called him. the land he stole from the Indians. Shreve McCannon. "is intentional. . as he reconstructs the story of Sutpen's family (not merely of the colonel himself). So does his Canadian roommate. Absalom! for a second time. he would not have been "the demon. When I was reading Absalom. like General Compson or Colonel Sartoris in the same novel. and would never have formed his grand design. Absalom!.in his long chapter on Absalom. deliberate?" To make the question more explicit. for example. I quoted a paragraph from an essay then under way. they also serve as symbols or metaphors with a wider application. I puzzled over that question of emblematic meanings and I wrote to Faulkner for elucidation. Oedipus. plainly incredible story has so seized upon Quentin's mind that he trembles with excitement when telling it and feels that it reveals the essence of the Deep South. In Absalom. Here is part of the paragraph. There would have been no novel and no myth. he does not concede that the novel has a mythical or legendary power. ." I said. That is a valid observation. Sutpen is an alien in the Deep South. was not a representative Theban. Brooks's implied "therefore" depends on a much too literal notion of myths and symbols. "How much of the symbolism. I think Quentin. but this. the poor white whom he wronged and who killed him in anger. but is based on a different facet of southern society. . First of all he was writing a story. Each of the myths has something to do with the South. . even though I 131 . is the correct yardstick here. usually a different one in each of the novels published during his extraordinarily fertile period from 1929 to 1942. You are correct. the whole novel might be explained as a connected and logical allegory. In Faulkner's case. the incidents in the story came to represent the forces and elements in the social situation. It can be found in the whole fictional framework that he has been elaborating in novel after novel. could not only have dreamed so high but have had the force and strength to have failed so grandly. who to Quentin was trash. not Faulkner. the final destruction of the mansion like the downfall of a social order: all these might belong to a tragic fable of Southern history. . and I believed Quentin could do it better than I in this case. The truth is that Faulkner's work embodies a number of myths or legends. the unacknowledged son who ruined him. but afterward I dimly saw myself what you put into words. since the mind naturally works in terms of symbols and parallels. But let us see how Faulkner answered my question. I think though you went a step further than I (unconsciously. but he not I was brooding over a situation. I repeat) intended. I didn't intend it. I was writing the story. and one that affected him deeply. that I too was going beyond the author's intention. this form of parallelism is not confined to Absalom. until his work has become a myth or legend of the South. . originless. But more he grieved the fact (because he hated and feared the portentous symptom) that a man like Sutpen. At this point I should like to say. after thirty years or more. I believe. . in part of a long and revealing letter: Your divination (vide paragraph) is correct [he said]. I was first of all (I still think) telling what I thought was a good story. Absalom!. would be going far beyond the author's intention. . With a little cleverness. but he was also brooding over a social situation.Negroes from the jungle. the woman of mixed blood whom he married and disowned. More or less unconsciously. But I accept gratefully all your implications. didn't carry them consciously and simultaneously in the writing of it. Reading over those last lines." Stand there. as he wrote to Joan Williams. a little trash comes up constantly now. He dipped into his unconscious memories as into a barrel. confident that he would find there all the moving stories since the beginning of time. I could not help thinking of Emerson's adjuration to the ideal poet: Doubt not. Faulkner has been the great exponent of that dream power. In our own century. and if a man writes hard enough. or exists. as well as human souls. which must 132 . which appears several times. shares its bread. because art like poverty takes care of its own. "but I know now that there is not very much more of it. Art is simpler than people think because there is so little to write about. Nothing walks. with touches of animism and primitive magic--then finally." he said. but persist. humbly enough. to follow Emerson's phrase. or grows. The barrel seemed inexhaustible. All the moving things are eternal in man's history and have been written before. he will repeat them. then those of his family and those of the Mississippi settlers. the bottom of the barrel--"The stuff is still good. his genius is no longer exhaustible. First came his childhood dreams or memories. he felt that he was coming toward the end. for he shared Emerson's confidence that all human societies. but Faulkner was dipping into it deeper and deeper. hissed and hooted. are cast in the same mold. or creeps. But I dont believe it would have been necessary to carry them or even to have known their analogous derivation. Comes he to that power. Say "It is in me and shall out. stand and strive. until at last rage draw out of thee that dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own. balked and dumb. which must not in turn arise and walk before him as exponent of his meaning. and with the unalterable determination never never never to be quite satisfied with it. All the creatures by pairs and by tribes pour into his mind as into a Noah's ark. to have had them in the story. a power transcending all limit and privacy. and by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of electricity. stuttering and stammering. sincerely enough. then he entered a pre-Christian layer--not only that but preliterate and prelogical as well. O poet. then the Gospel story. to come forth again to people a new world. without ever having seen it. a concern with events that happen. which is concerned with another myth. but we have Faulkner's authorization to omit the long fourth part. Sanctuary. I will mention in particular John Lydenberg and Carvel Collins. as a special element. Isaac McCaslin was first brought into the wilderness at the age of ten. in The Sound and the Fury. and especially in that great legend of the wilderness. Let me retell the story simply as a nature myth. In these he created a whole series of myths. As I Lay Dying. Moses." It has been analyzed time and again and its symbolic or mythical elements have been observed by many critics. then. It is in fact the clearest example of Faulkner's mythmaking power. Moses) is in five parts as we know. The story (or chapter of Go Down.be sifted out. and V. reading the minds of animals (as do the old women in fables who can understand the talk of birds). Here. though it helps us to find the same quality in other books--in Absalom. but the power and magic of his achievement is most apparent in his 1942 book. the big old bear with one trap-ruined foot that in an area almost a hundred miles square had earned for himself a name. such as extrasensory perception." Let me apologize in advance for devoting so much of my attention to "The Bear. in which he depended less on those subconscious feelings that had served him so well in the novels of the 1930s. whereas the true gifts of dream and the unconscious must be accepted humbly and sincerely. not by laws of cause and effect. He had already inherited then. psychophysical parallelism. invulnerability to weapons. that of the black and white descendants of old Carothers McCaslin. Light in August." That was when he was writing A Fable. as noted. and others as well. A Fable was willed as a parable. II. is the story retold as a myth of the wilderness and a myth of initiation. and. the belief that objects are inhabited by spirits and that the whole natural world is animate. a definite designation like a living man:--the long legend of corncribs broken down and rifled. Go Down. as Faulkner accepted them in his earlier great books. "The Bear. III. and here I shall emphasize its magical or supernatural elements. Absalom!. The nature myth is recounted in Parts I. but in concordance with a ritual pattern preexisting in dreams. of 133 . too big for the very country which was its constricting scope. wild life which the little puny humans swarmed and hacked at in a fury of abhorrence and fear. The bear. too big for the dogs which tried to bay it. the medusa of innumerable legends. It ran in his knowledge before he ever saw it. but just big. is the "epitome and apotheosis" of the wilderness. red-eyed. for the horses which tried to ride it down. and traps and deadfalls overthrown and dogs mangled and slain. for the men and the bullets they fired into it. a phantom. men myriad and nameless even to one another in the land where the old bear had earned a name. tremendous. we note. some of them going back to the Middle Ages and others to preclassical times in Greece. not malevolent but just big. Ike McCaslin at the age of ten is about to become one of the priestly band. tremendous. not a full 134 . dead time." We read on: It was as if the boy had already divined what his senses and intellect had not encompassed yet: that doomed wilderness whose edges were being constantly and punily gnawed at by men with plows and axes who feared it because it was wilderness. Old Ben is the god of the wilderness. the minotaur. red-eyed" creature is "not malevolent. It loomed and towered in his dreams before he even saw the unaxed woods where it left its crooked print. we note that the "shaggy. shaggy. however. Here is the monster of legend: the dragon. they are depicted almost as a band of priests. and shotgun and even rifle shots delivered at point-blank range yet with no more effect than so many peas blown through a tube by a child--a corridor of wreckage and destruction beginning back before the boy was born. each performing his sacerdotal part in a mystery. to use a simpler word. and through which ran not even a mortal beast but an anachronism indomitable and invincible out of an old. In this case. like pygmies about the ankles of a drowsing elephant. through which sped. not fast but rather with the ruthless and irresistible deliberation of a locomotive. As for the hunters who pursue Old Ben.shoats and grown pigs and even calves carried bodily into the woods and devoured. the shaggy tremendous shape. epitome and apotheosis of the old. It was not even strange to him. while the wilderness closed behind his entrance as it had opened momentarily to accept him. it is almost as if he were entering the womb. and not merely in dreams. a wise old man. It is a characteristic of fairy stories that their plots move forward by what we might call a graded series of actions or events. Should we call that extrasensory perception? Or should we think of all the fairy stories in which someone is able to understand the language of animals? In many respects. He had experienced it all before. and we find him. opening before his advancement as it closed behind his progress. an initiate. I shall not stress the sexual overtones of this passage. "The Bear" is like a fairy story. . As such he will participate in what Faulkner calls "the yearly pageant-rite of the old bear's furious immortality. For the boy in this story. the mentor is Sam Fathers. for he was a wide reader.member. even reading the bear's mind. warm." Each novice. We read: He entered his novitiate to the true wilderness with Sam beside him as he had begun his apprenticeship in miniature to manhood after the rabbits and such with Sam beside him. if he is fortunate. but it seems more likely that he discovered some of the same values and the same images by exploring his own subconscious. When the boy enters the wilderness. the two of them wrapped in the damp. he feels a mysterious affinity for the bear. as I have suggested. has a guide and mentor. . at points in the story. Did Faulkner read those anthropologists? Possibly he may have done so. With the blood of the wilderness running strong in him. Initiation--so we read in the works of various anthropologists--is a rite of death and rebirth. Old Sam Fathers is the son of a Chickasaw chief by a Negro slave woman. . with each 135 . Negro-rank quilt. no fixed path the wagon followed but a channel nonexistent ten yards ahead of it and ceasing to exist ten yards after it had passed. but a novice. That was part of his mythopoeic genius. It seemed to him that at the age of ten he was witnessing his own birth. He never did certainly hear them. now or ever. the print of the enormous warped two-toed foot. . Now he knew what he had heard in the hounds' voices in the woods that morning and what he had smelled when he peered under the kitchen where they huddled". Third event: On the following morning Ike is on a new stand with his loaded gun. I quote 136 . . So I will have to see him. that will serve as a first climax of Ike's novitiate as a priest of the wilderness. Second event: With his mystic knowledge of where the bear can be found. First event in the series: The hounds see the bear. . They are building toward a fourth event or experience that will be still more intense. Faulkner also made frequent use of the graded series and nowhere more effectively than in "The Bear.event being a little more intense than the one that preceded it. . but the one that is easiest to recognize is the series of events that leads up to the decisive moment when the boy first catches sight of the bear. ." Each of these three experiences is more intense for Ike than the one that preceded it. in it which he could not yet recognize. it was the sound and the smell of fear. I will have to look at him. in the wet earth beside it." The story contains three or four of the series. and their baying changes from a ringing chorus to "a moiling yapping an octave too high and with something ." Later Ike and Sam find the dogs huddled under the kitchen and smell an effluvium of something more than dog. without dread or even hope. He did not know whether it was facing him from the cane or behind him. holding the useless gun which he knew now he would never fire at it. tasting in his saliva that taint of brass which he had smelled in the huddled dogs when he peered under the kitchen. He never saw it. At this point Ike resembles an Indian boy in search of a vision that will shape his future life. Sam leads young Ike deep into the woods and shows him "the rotted log scored 'and gutted with clawmarks and. "He heard no dogs at all. and knew that the bear was looking at him. he thought. He only heard the drumming of the woodpecker stop short off. He did not move. Slowly he realizes that. that is. Empty-handed.from an account by two anthropologists reprinted in Bear. but this fourth event requires a lapse of time and a special preparation. who says. so he 137 . He passed through his experience alone. The graded series that leads up to it had started with the hounds' catching sight of Old Ben. He does what Sam had told him to do if lost. "You ain't looked right. Young Ike McCaslin's special vision will be of the bear. It's the gun. as a third event. without breakfast (fasting like an Indian boy). always alone. a watch. . It is midsummer of the following year. he still has the watch and the compass. he continues his search. . he meets Sam Fathers. but always he comes back to camp without his vision. and God. ." He takes Sam's advice. He is still tainted. . ostensibly to hunt squirrels. alone in the wilderness. without watch or compass. he searches for nine hours without finding a sign of Old Ben. As he returns on the third evening. It had continued with Ike's seeing the bear's footprint and then. When he fell into a sleep or a trance. On the fourth morning he leaves camp before dawn. they are describing the initiation rites of the Omaha tribe: Four days and nights the youth was to fast and pray provided he was physically able to bear so long a strain. Then he decides that leaving the gun behind isn't enough. and a compass. and leans against the bush the stick he has carried as a protection against snakes. Man. Ranging still farther into the wilderness. and leaves the gun behind. he was forbidden to use the bow and arrows put into his hands by his father when he left his home for this solitary test of endurance. . He doesn't find the track. must see the bear for himself. He hangs them both on a bush. he is completely lost. Now the boy. actually he is in search of Old Ben. Each morning after breakfast Ike leaves the camp with his shotgun. if he saw or heard anything that thing was to become a special medium through which the youth could receive supernatural aid. No matter how hungry he became. For three successive days he ranges farther and farther into the wilderness. he makes a circular cast to cross his backtrack. . Ike and his older companions have returned to the camp in the wilderness. and alone he returned to his father's lodge. with the bear's looking at Ike. appear. It faded. Then comes one of the finest passages in a superb story. the warped indentation in the wet ground which while he looked at it continued to fill with water until it was level full and the water began to overflow and the sides of the print began to dissolve away. not hurrying. it was just there. soundless. moving. the priest of the wilderness. It crossed the glade without haste. He has performed the magic ritual and it has produced its magical result. and solidified--the tree. bigger. seeing as he sat down on the log the crooked print. . not as big as he had dreamed it but as big as he had expected. and stopped again and looked back at him across one shoulder. It didn't walk into the woods. losing himself in the wilderness. panting a little above the strong rapid little hammer of his heart. moving. or of any feet. Once again failure. but in accordance with patterns that seem to lie deep in the unconscious and that Faulkner has embodied in this story. It rushed. without the least taint of science or logic. walking for an instant into the sun's full glare and out of it. immobile. fixed in the green and windless noon's hot dappling. but merely keeping pace with them as they appeared before him as though they were being shaped out of thin air just one constant pace short of where he would lose them forever and be lost forever himself. Then it was gone. looking at him. Then he saw the bear. the bush. he follows a third instruction by sitting down on a log to think things over. and. the compass and the watch glinting where a ray of sunlight touched them. Even as he looked up he saw the next one. a passage that must be quoted in full: . We read on: [The bear] did not emerge. the one beyond it. and has even gone beyond those instructions by abandoning watch and compass as well as gun. he finds no trace of his feet. That is the vision for which he has searched and fasted. tireless. The vision has been vouchsafed because he has followed the instructions of Sam Fathers. eager.follows a second instruction of Sam's by making a wider cast in the opposite direction. and the wilderness coalesced. running. sank back into the wilderness without motion as he had 138 . emerging suddenly into a little glade. Close to panic now. Then it moved. dimensionless against the dappled obscurity. without doubt or dread. . against all the laws of scientific probability. not by natural causes. most of the hunters are left behind. It does not emerge. old Sam Fathers is a priest of the wilderness 139 . Carvel Collins was the first to point out the mythical significance of their crossing water. but now by only three hunters. With the new dog. they set out after Old Ben on the last hunting day of three successive autumns. Old Ben escapes by swimming down the river. more than a dozen strangers appear. The bear at this moment is more than a flesh-and-blood creature. sink back into the dark depths of its pool and vanish without even any movement of its fins. of effects produced. Some forty strangers appear to watch the hunt. but is simply there.) The moment has come for Old Ben to die. "so that when they went into the woods this morning Major de Spain led a party almost as strong. who have also crossed the river. it is a vision touched with elements of the supernatural.watched a fish. (Incidentally. it appeals to feelings and patterns existing in his mind below the level of conscious thinking. that can bay and hold him." In the frantic chase that follows. excepting that some of them were not armed. Old Ben escapes once more. Another is the death of Old Ben. having crossed the river. but sinks back into the wilderness without motion. Lion. but by spells and rituals. Young Ike McCaslin's vision of the bear is not the only episode in the story that illustrates these prelogical patterns of feeling. Here we note another graded series. The whole passage is full of magic in the proper sense of the word. Among the three hunters who are eligible to kill him. At last the hunters have found a huge dog. The third autumn will be the climax. On the first autumn. another mythical creature. I suspect. that is. an event toward which everything else has been building. in the manner of a medieval legend or a fairy tale. On the second autumn. and his death is accomplished in a ritual fashion. as some he had led in the last darkening days of '64 and '65. Old Ben swims across the river. seven strangers appear in camp to watch the proceedings. a huge old bass. At the same time it seems profoundly right to the reader because. but this time with buckshot and a slug in his hide from General Compson's double- barreled shotgun. pursued by Lion and most of the other dogs. leading the pack. It does not walk away. saving out only the acre of land where Sam and Lion are buried (with one of the bear's paws in an axle-grease tin near the top of Lion's grave). crumple. seemed to bounce once. and there will be no more November hunting parties. Lion dives in and sinks his teeth in the bear's throat. Lion dies of his wounds. his gun is useless. in any circumstances." The death of the bear leads magically to a series of catastrophic events. after the loss of his wilderness god he has no more reason for living. Young Ike has decided that he will never.and cannot kill his own god (not to mention that Sam is unarmed). should be killed only with primitive weapons such as a knife or an axe. inspects the dried remains of the bear's mutilated paw. Old Sam Fathers collapses." once again with overtones of primitive ritual and magic. Major de Spain will never go back to the hunting camp. recapture it instinctively? The story reaches its climax. Had Faulkner read about that feeling or did he." and then begins raking the dog's belly with his foreclaws. It didn't collapse. To save his dog. and plunges his knife into the bear's throat. But Boon also has a more primitive weapon. . being a special sort of animal connected with very old tribal ceremonies and traditions. . But the boy goes back two years later. man dog and bear. then puts the tin back again. shoot at the bear. The third eligible hunter is Boon Hogganbeck. The hounds swirl around the bear as it stands on its hind legs with its back against a tree. as an act of piety. That is the episode beautifully presented in the fifth and last section of "The Bear. The bear holds Lion in both arms. It fell all of a piece. ". Ike digs up the axle-grease tin. Boon Hogganbeck throws away the useless gun. once again. flings himself astride the bear's back. then the bear surged erect. as a tree falls. raising with it the man and the dog too. and turned and still carrying the man and the dog it took two or three steps toward the woods on its hind feet as a man would have walked and crashed down. there was a widespread feeling among woodland Indians that bears. so that all three of them. As reported by anthropologists. who has never been known to hit anything he aimed at. "almost loverlike. Major de Spain sells the wilderness to a logging company. a knife. He does not even look for 140 . on the morning of Sam's burial he had filled it with food and tobacco. the new bandanna handkerchief. leaf and twig and particle. "But that is all right. dark and dawn and dark and dawn again in their immutable progression. which. no heart to be driven and outraged. one: and Old Ben too. knowing that he had stepped over it. they would give him his paw back even. breathing and biding and immobile. He almost steps on a huge rattlesnake. the small paper sack of the peppermint candy which Sam had used to love. myriad yet undiffused of every myriad part. What should we call the beliefs implicit in that passage: animism? pantheism? panpsychism? a sacrifice to the spirits of the dead? the myth of eternal recurrence translated into spiritual terms? All those primeval notions are suggested. ." he thinks to himself. the one he had nailed to a nearby tree. evocative of all knowledge and an old weariness and of pariah- 141 . perhaps on it. almost before he had turned his back. being myriad. though destroyed by lumbermen. will live on in his mind. "the head raised higher than his knee and less than his knee's length away . As Ike walks down from the graves on the knoll he has one more experience that evokes a feeling of the supernatural.Sam Fathers's grave. Old Ben too. . quitting the knoll which was no abode of the dead because there was no death. . as empty of that as it would presently be of this which he drew from his pocket--the twist of tobacco. not vanished but merely translated into the myriad life which printed the dark mold of these secret and sunless places with delicate fairy tracks." Instead he goes to the other axle-grease tin. the ancient and accursed about the earth. not Lion and not Sam: not held fast in earth but free in earth and not in earth but of earth. . and. He has replaced Sam Fathers as a priest of the wilderness. certainly they would give him his paw back: then the long challenge and the long chase. air and sun and rain and dew and night. . the old one. . watched him from beyond every twig and leaf until he moved . acorn oak and leaf and acorn again. no flesh to be mauled and bled. fatal and solitary and he could smell it now: the thin sick smell of rotting cucumbers and something else which had no name. It was empty now-- . which. and Ike himself has become part of them. that gone too. "He probably knew I was in the woods this morning long before I got here. "The Bear" is more than a story. Then he puts the other foot down and. speaking the old tongue which Sam had spoken that day without premeditation either: 'Chief. it is a myth that appeals. until at last. .'" The reader does not stop to question how Ike had come to remember those two words of Chickasaw that Sam had spoken six years before. "standing with one hand raised as Sam had stood that afternoon six years ago . to feelings buried deep in the minds of its readers.hood and of death. like other great myths. the snake glides away. at this point." those two words of high respect to be spoken with one hand raised. ." Ike stands there transfixed. We are ready to believe that Ike himself. has acquired magical powers. 142 . one foot still raised from the ground.' he said: 'Grandfather. without striking him. or how he came to know that one of them meant "Chief" and the other "Grandfather. In Hemingway’s early fiction. and polysyllabic words. The paper’s style sheet gave reporters 110 straightforward rules to follow to improve their writing. It taught him to avoid passive voice. can fail to write well if he abides with them’’ (“Back to His First Field” 21). “Use short sentences. for which the newspaper was charged by the word. Hemingway often sent his stories in by telegrams. who feels and writes truly about the thing he is trying to say. No man with any talent. Michael Reynolds suggests that Hemingway’s experience as a journalist had both positive and negative effects on his writing: The newspaper game taught him the necessity for exact and believable facts. not negative” (qtd.” As a foreign correspondent in Europe for the Toronto Star. Hemingway’s writing owes its terseness in part to his extensive experience with “cablese. 97) Hemingway himself told an interviewer that on the Star he learned how to write simple declarative sentences. To keep costs 143 .Hemingway HEMINGWAY’S JOURNALISM Ernest Hemingway’s work as a journalist at the Kansas City Star from October 1917 to April 1918 helped forge his distinctive writing style. long sentences. Other guidelines included the recommendation that slang is effective only if it’s new and a caution against using adjectives (Fenton 32–33). “Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing. Use short first paragraphs. The first paragraph stated. Use vigorous English.” Hemingway said in 1940. a lesson reinforced by [American poet Ezra] Pound. a skill that would be helpful to any young writer (Plimpton 116). But it also taught him the reporter’s passive role of being witness to the event without participating in it…. declarative sentences. in Fenton 31). and many of them are reflected in Hemingway’s work. the reporter’s stance produced oddly passive characters to whom things happened but who seldom took action on their own. “I’ve never forgotten them. particularly his reliance on short. (Paris. Be positive. and not particularly good description. Begin over again and concentrate.” she told Hemingway. 144 . When he first brought her some poems and the beginning of a novel to read. creating a dense.” LITERARY INFLUENCES ON HEMINGWAY’S STYLE Besides influencing his writing style. Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein became two of the earliest and most important literary influences on Hemingway’s writing style. After reading a draft of “Big Two-Hearted River. he had to convey his messages by cable in as few words as possible. information-packed style jokingly termed “cablese. She also strongly encouraged him to give up his job as a reporter for the sake of his art. more experienced writers. techniques similar to the freewriting taught today in composition classes. as she reports in The Autobiography of Alice B. and its focus on the father-son relationship. she said. a 1919 work which like Hemingway’s In Our Time is a collection of interrelated short stories.down. she responded bluntly. specifically his short story “I Want to Know Why. Because of its setting in the horse-racing world. Anderson was also the author of Winesburg.” In a backhanded acknowledgment of his debt to Anderson. But Hemingway also benefited from the counsel of older. Hemingway later wrote the brief novel Torrents of Spring to parody what he saw as Anderson’s comically bad writing later in his career. “remarks are not literature” (Stein 270) and wisely advised him to cut the introductory material (published after his death as “On Writing”) from the beginning of the story. Anderson was a well-known and respected novelist when Hemingway met him in Chicago in the fall of 1920 and soon afterward followed his sage advice to go to Paris. she said” (Stein 262). Hemingway’s early experience as a journalist exposed him to experiences that later became subject matter for his fiction. Gertrude Stein influenced Hemingway to experiment with automatic writing and free association to stimulate his writing. Ohio. Hemingway’s short story “My Old Man” is generally recognized as the work most closely resembling Anderson’s work. Toklas: “There is a great deal of description in this. its colloquial language. and The Great Gatsby made a lasting impression on him. He also advised him to cut a joke from the short story “Fifty Grand. Although Hemingway was less than kind in his characterization of Fitzgerald in A Moveable Feast. and whom in True at First Light he specifically mentioned regretting never having met. especially the works of Modernist artists such as Picasso. He also claimed other kinds of artists as influences. Other contemporaries who influenced Hemingway’s writing included Ezra Pound. Ivan Turgenev.” Hemingway complied. he respected Fitzgerald’s work. and Marcel Proust. Perhaps because Hemingway spent his twenties in Paris at a time when it was the vibrant center of the art world. and frequently drew up lists of literature he recommended to would-be writers. he was extraordinarily well read.His contemporary F. when his health was failing. In interviews and in his Esquire articles he mentioned many authors and other artists whose work had influenced his.S. whom he did meet. Stendhal. although he still regretted the decision years later. including Bach. He read newspapers everywhere he went. Fitzgerald’s own editor at Scribner’s. and James Joyce. T. Russians Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The two corresponded off and on for years. whom he once called “the man who taught me to distrust adjectives” (AMF 134). including French authors Gustav Flaubert. 145 . Even in his later years. Hemingway read extensively all his life. and whose work he consistently admired and praised. and Cezanne. packed boxes of books to take with him even on his African safaris. Mozart. Although he was not college- educated. Lawrence. he subscribed to more than a dozen magazines and read 200 to 300 books a year (Reynolds. He wrote a favorable review of In Our Time for Bookman and counseled Hemingway to cut the first two chapters of The Sun Also Rises. he developed a passionate love for art. Final 202–03). from whom he claimed to have learned the art of allusion (DIA 139). Miro. Leo Tolstoy. Guy de Maupassant. particularly in nineteenth- and twentieth-century European literature. and the sculptor Rodin. Scott Fitzgerald recommended Hemingway’s work to the attention of Maxwell Perkins. Eliot. D. who shared his mysticism about the spirituality of heterosexual love.H. well after the American Civil War ended in 1865. now best known for his children’s books. Hemingway praised Kipling’s work in his private letters. British authors Andrew Marvell. and the difficulty of becoming a man—turn up in Hemingway’s work as well. mentioned it favorably in Green Hills of Africa and his magazine articles. and the medieval Italian poet Dante. sentimental Victorian style. “All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckle-berry Finn. Just So Stories and The Jungle Book. Emily Brontë. the Nobel Prize-winning poet and novelist was highly respected during Hemingway’s youth. Rudyard Kipling. and the themes of his work—action and adventure. nevertheless wrote so perceptively about war that Hemingway included the whole text of The Red Badge of Courage in Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time. an anthology he edited. he learned how to write about war in an honest. two works that gave him some of his best titles.H. Although Kipling is sometimes dismissed by contemporary readers as an apologist for British imperialism in India.and Anton Chekhov. the German writer Thomas Mann. naturalistic way rather than in the overblown. Hemingway himself may have owed his use of vernacular American English to Twain. Literary critic Mark Spilka 146 . and included a Kipling story in the collection Men at War. Crane. Henry Fielding. Rudyard Kipling. was also an important influence on Hemingway’s work. who was not born until 1871. Two other important influences on his work include the King James Version of the Bible and the Oxford Book of English Verse. W.” Hemingway writes in Green Hills of Africa (22). a British naval officer and author of adventure stories and children’s literature. He also learned from Crane’s well-researched historical Civil War novel (published in 1895) that it was possible for an author to describe with convincing accuracy a battle he had never seen—a feat of which Hemingway later proved himself capable in A Farewell to Arms. Henry James. and Shakespeare. Hudson. brutality and human responses to it. Hemingway also drew inspiration from his boyhood reading of Captain Frederick Marryat. From Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. and a tough. Henry. He tried to stop each afternoon while he knew what would happen next in the story. WRITING PROCESS In his articles. so that when he returned to the work the next day. as he recalled decades later in A Moveable Feast. and the emphasis on the “stiff upper lip” a gentleman was expected to maintain.” how to end his stories with what Hemingway called a “wow”—a tactic Hemingway later prided himself on having eventually unlearned (DIA 182). Hemingway described his development as an artist in unusual and extensive detail. the representation of the man of action with masculine values. Before he began drafting. marking up the pages with handwritten corrections. Hemingway took a naturalistic outlook. In the 1950s Hemingway told George Plimpton of the Paris Review that he stood while he wrote. He typically wrote his first drafts in handwriting. Hemingway himself acknowledged that he learned from popular short story writer O. themes of vengeance and reprisal. Hemingway was also interested in Theodore Roosevelt’s commitment to wilderness preservation and his advocacy of a vigorous masculinity typified by soldiering and hunting. he consciously tried to avoid thinking about his work because he believed that putting it out of his mind both enabled his subconscious to work and made him a better observer of what went on around him. author of the 1903 book The Call of the Wild. He tried to write daily. He made further changes when the drafts were typed and sometimes continued to tinker with the work even 147 . he would reread and edit what he had written the previous day. he would have an idea already in mind of what to write. From American novelist Jack London. and interviews. In the meantime. rugged subject matter. and kept track of his progress by counting the words written each day. Hemingway often wrote at Paris cafés. In his early twenties. generally beginning early in the morning and working until early afternoon. macho attitude towards suffering. author of the famous Christmas tale “Gift of the Magi. Hemingway was drawn to Africa in part as a result of reading Roosevelt’s account of his own safari.suggests that what Hemingway found so compelling in Marryat’s writings were depictions of boys rebelling against conventional parents. nonfiction. Hemingway paid close attention to his publisher’s marketing efforts.after it was typeset and he received the galleys to proofread before publication. On Fitzgerald’s recommendation. to pontificate. to repeat himself. He worked especially hard on the endings to his stories and once told an interviewer he had revised the last page of A Farewell to Arms 39 times before he was happy with it (Plimpton 113)—a claim that his manuscripts substantiate. He writes with scorn of the pleasure he took in his audience’s favorable reactions. when Gertrude Stein acerbically observed that “remarks are not literature. In A Moveable Feast he recalls reading parts of A Sun Also Rises aloud to friends. he was nevertheless demoralized when his early work was repeatedly rejected. Once his work was published. Hemingway avoided talking about his writing before it was published because he believed that talking would rob him of the need to write and ruin his enthusiasm for the project. to criticize a book’s cover art or to complain about the way his books were advertised. Hemingway hated to be interrupted while he was working and later in life frequently complained about the telephone calls and visits from 148 . Although money was never his chief concern. and it is apparent that he believed he should have been writing for his own satisfaction as an artist rather than pandering to an audience whose tastes he later came to distrust. Maxwell Perkins. and it’s clear he came to despise himself for what he later perceived as a deplorable lack of professionalism.” he cut nine pages from “Big Two-Hearted River” (Stein 270). Hemingway tended to overwrite—that is. In his first drafts. writing frequently to his editor. He often revised by cutting. to give too much extraneous background information. He later paid close attention to his books’ sales figures and was always aware of what his work was worth in economic terms. Hemingway cut 15 pages (more than a chapter) from the beginning of The Sun Also Rises manuscript. sometimes extensively. especially when the editors reviewing his short stories persisted in calling them anecdotes or sketches rather than stories. “If he wrote it he could get rid of it. According to a memoir by one Hemingway associate.fans that came with fame. He sometimes used his writing to exorcise painful emotions. a play. His published work includes newspaper articles. a parody. magazine articles. of Nick Adams’ writing. because she rejected this traditional wifely role. He had never realized that before. “It was really more fun than anything. He believed that “a writer should be of as great probity and honesty as a priest of God” (“Introduction” xiii). There is some evidence that Hemingway. He expected his wives to manage the household and his children while he worked and deeply resented his third wife. referring to his typewriter. “That’s been my analyst” (Hotchner 152).” the story’s autobiographical protagonist. and write when there is something that you know. squandered. a memoir. “Sure I have. Nick’s creator. short stories. poetry. felt the same way. As he explained in his conclusion to Death in the Afternoon. Scott Fitzgerald that whenever he was hurt he should use his pain in his work. Nicholas Adams. It was simply that it was the greatest pleasure” (NAS 238). novels. he had once written. Martha. Hemingway emphasized the writer’s loneliness and isolation. He also 149 .” and A Moveable Feast. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Both in interviews and in his written response upon receiving the Nobel Prize. in To Have and Have Not. or abused their talent—for example. Hemingway saw his talent as a moral responsibility and wrote often in his work about artists who perverted. In the short story “Fathers and Sons. Yet decades earlier. and not too damned much after” (278). the movie star Ava Gardner once asked Hemingway if he had ever had a psychoanalyst. It wasn’t conscience. and probably of his own as well. Portable Corona number three. “The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand. He once told F. and book-length nonfiction. thinks to himself. and not before. believing her writing was as important as his. GENRES Ernest Hemingway wrote published and unpublished works in an astonishingly broad range of genres.” he responded. He had gotten rid of many things by writing about them” (SS 491). Although his novels The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms regularly appear on lists of the best works of American literature. Writing was rarely easy for him. tells himself. however. believes that the actual number could be as high as twice that many. edited a book of writings on war. “it is all very well for you to write simply and the simpler the better. You have always written before and you will write now. and it would be difficult to find an anthology of twentieth-century short stories that does not include one of his works. and after discussion with scholars. and once wrote a beautifully moving eulogy at the request of a friend’s widow. Biographer Carlos Baker conservatively estimated that Hemingway wrote some six or seven thousand letters during his lifetime.corresponded extensively with his friends. Stephen Plotkin. Write the truest sentence that you know” (12). Hemingway also wrote a documentary film script. deepened by his depression. writing letters when he could not write fiction. Hemingway suffered increasingly throughout his life from severe bouts of writer’s block. Hemingway. Kennedy Presidential Library. In A Moveable Feast. Both take a lifetime to learn …”he wrote in one of his columns for Esquire magazine in 1934 (By-Line 159). then you have to know how to write. telling himself. Know how complicated it is and then state it simply” (37). Hemingway sometimes nearly despaired that he would ever write again. That 150 . contributed introductions to the books of other writers. David Bourne offers himself a similar reminder in the posthumously published novel The Garden of Eden. “The hardest thing in the world to do is to write straight honest prose on human beings. relatives. In his worst moments of artistic doubt. Hemingway’s short stories are on the whole regarded even more highly than his novels. “Do not worry. His poetry is less highly regarded. But do not start to think so damned simply. Despite his obvious productivity as a writer. All you have to do is write one true sentence. the former curator of the Hemingway Collection at the John F. and ex-wives. and it is generally acknowledged that he wrote his best poetry in the lyrical prose of his novels and short stories. First you have to know the subject. although plagued by self-doubt. HEMINGWAY’S LITERARY INNOVATIONS The strength of Hemingway’s writing is his style. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1886 classic Little Lord Fauntleroy is typical of this flowery style. “A writer’s job is to tell the truth. By contrast. often one-syllable words. he wrote. a preference for simple. “I sometimes 151 . In 1942. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. and an emphasis on the concrete rather than the abstract. in Plimpton 125). should produce a truer account than anything factual can be” (xiv). In Death in the Afternoon. His standard of fidelity to the truth should be so high that his invention. Hemingway explained the importance of the concrete: “I was trying to write then and I found the greatest difficulty. explaining passionately that he was trying not to depict life but to make an experience come alive for the reader (Selected Letters 153). Hemingway wrote something very similar in a letter to his father from Paris in March 1925. the characteristics of Hemingway’s style include short declarative sentences. perhaps Hemingway’s most noteworthy contribution to literature is his theory of omission. what the actual things were which produced the emotion that you experienced” (2). much popular American fiction was written in a sweetly sentimental late- Victorian prose that seemed stale and laughable after the horror and disillusionment of World War I. It is the part that doesn’t show. so difficult to achieve—characterized his best and most memorable work. was to put down what really happened in action. in which entrants vie to write the funniest parody of Hemingway’s work. in his introduction to Men at War. aside from knowing truly what you really felt. Before Hemingway. which he practiced even in his earliest work: “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg.emphasis on one true sentence—that apparent simplicity. Apart from his style and his emphasis on the concrete detail. out of his experience. and had been taught to feel. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story” (qtd. rather than what you were supposed to feel. which is so distinctive that it has inspired the ultimate backhanded tribute: an annual Bad Hemingway Contest. the beginning of World War II. the beginning of World War I.” where neither of the characters ever names the action—a proposed abortion—about which they are arguing.” One of Hemingway’s most famous omissions occurs in “Hills Like White Elephants. 1910. Brown. According to the theory of evolution proposed by the British naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). A decided break with the Victorian and Edwardian periods that preceded it. and 1939. human beings. Part of what he omits in many of his writings is the emotion. In some ways. As Virginia Woolf writes in her essay on character. the guide’s suicide after he was fired as a result of Ernest’s complaints: “This was omitted on my new theory that you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood” (75). MODERNISM Hemingway’s writings are associated with the literary movement called modernism. rather than being the center of a divinely created universe. modernism is generally associated with literary works produced between 1914. The chief disadvantage of this theory is that it opens the door to all sorts of rather frightening misreadings by people who insist that they know what Hemingway “left out. “The reader must often use his imagination or lose the most subtle part of my thought” (qtd. he had described an actual fishing trip that went wrong because of a drunken guide.think my style is suggestive rather than direct. but had left out the real-life aftermath. human character changed” (320). were little better than animals at the mercy of their own biology. Russian economist Karl Marx (1818–1883) theorized 152 .… in or about December. modernism was a response to the changes created by startling new theories about human life and behavior. Bennett and Mrs. At the end of A Farewell to Arms. “Mr.” he wrote in an article not published until after his death. in Wagner-Martin. In A Moveable Feast Hemingway recalls that in writing the short story “Out of Season” (published in In Our Time). Frederic Henry expresses so little of the grief he feels that some imperceptive critics have erroneously called him emotionally stunted. Six Decades 275). S. Women began to wear shorter skirts and cut their hair short.that economic forces controlled human beings and determined their actions and even their beliefs. argued that human beings were not even in full control of their own minds.” also sometimes referred to as the “New Woman. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). the young men England sent off to fight in World War I envisioned a picturesque war involving heroism and chivalry. an action F. Modernist writing is also characterized by aesthetic innovation and radical experimentation. the carnage of World War I destroyed any lingering doubts.” Thus was born the “flapper. the surviving members of the younger generation came to blame the older generation—and specifically their fathers—for what was perceived as the pointless sacrifice of so many young lives. As scholar Paul Fussell has shown in The Great War and Modern Memory. and William Faulkner. trilogy of novels.” 153 . nonrhyming verse forms of h. American women became eligible to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on August 26. 1920. Modernist writers responded to the culture’s destruction of faith in humanity by dropping the notions of heroism espoused by their parents and turning instead to a sometimes savage irony.d. If those theories weren’t enough to discourage faith in humanity. and Ezra Pound. Instead they found themselves mired in mud-filled trenches. the Austrian father of psychoanalysis. the new. including the stream-of-consciousness novels of James Joyce.A. Scott Fitzgerald memorialized in the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair. gender roles began to change dramatically in Western culture during the 1920s. A classic example occurs at the end of the first chapter of A Farewell to Arms: “At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. John Dos Passos’ U. Virginia Woolf. With his theories of the unconscious. Bitter and disillusioned. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army” (4).” In part as a result of World War I.S. and T. and the fragmentation of Hemingway’s In Our Time. fighting desperately for weeks to gain a foot of ground. Thanks to tireless campaigning by count-less suffragists. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land. Eliot. In Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. Gertrude Stein. including the radio. Ezra Pound.S. Lawrence. and T. Many modernist writers chose to become expatriates in part because Paris offered them a much more stimulating intellectual climate than America did. Djuna Barnes. and used birth control. Inventions first created decades earlier also became more readily available to the general public. Also significant in the rise of modernism is the corresponding development of new technologies in the early twentieth century. for example— became expatriates. Eliot. Yeats espoused a return to primitivism or drew on mythic traditions. Lawrence called for a return to what he called the dark blood knowledge of human sexuality. which helps explain why so many Modernist writers—Sherwood Anderson.S. She might go to college. which traced the influence of ancient fertility cults upon early Christianity. and W. and the relatively inexpensive automobile produced by Henry Ford’s newly invented assembly-line process. Partly in response to the dehumanizing and alienating effects new technology could have on human civilization. drank. including the camera. T. the New Woman smoked. the typewriter. For example. and Yeats encouraged interest in the traditional Celtic folklore of his native Ireland. and long-suffering) perhaps reflect Hemingway’s masculine anxiety about the New Woman and her effect on his own gender role. These technologies made the kind of global travel we associate with Hemingway easier. James Joyce.B. the phonograph. writers like D. Eliot evoked ancient Greek myths in his poetry. although few women went on to work.Unlike her predecessors. the airplane. the telegraph. Jake Barnes’ sexual incapacity and oddly feminized role with respect to Lady Brett Ashley (he is passive.H. and she enjoyed an unprecedented new sexual freedom. and the telephone. Especially influential were works like Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance. These changes made many men uneasy and uncomfortable. for example. They could also associate with other writers and artists 154 . and those feelings are reflected in the literature written by male modernist writers. chaste. Yet technology also created increasing alienation and culminated in the machine guns and poison gas of World War I. and creativity—was tolerated and sometimes even encouraged rather than condemned. its irony. including Wilfred Owen’s poetry. So-called “little magazines. Hemingway described this theme in a succinct and memorable phrase that his friend Gerald Murphy recalled him first using on a ski trip they took together with John Dos Passos in March 1926. I guess I had. and promoted and sometimes published each other’s work. published modernist fiction and poetry when no other magazines were interested in such difficult. homosexuality. irregular work schedules. Vital in the establishment of modernism were small communities of writers who encouraged each other. World War I and the younger generation’s revulsion at its cost in human lives comprise an important theme of many modernist works. THEMES Modernist writings were often difficult to publish because of their content as well as their style. Catherine in A Farewell to Arms and the waiter in “A Clean.in a freer social environment in which unorthodox behavior— including eccentricities. Murphy. provided free editorial help and advice. Hemingway’s work is also typical of modernism in its fragmentation (In Our Time). and prostitution—topics that the American public saw as immoral and disgusting. Murphy later wrote of Hemingway. experimental writings. abortion. Well-Lighted Place”). a novice skier. communities such as the Bloomsbury Group in London or the loosely associated Parisian expatriates of whom Hemingway was a part. Brett in The Sun Also Rises. Dalloway. But the chief theme of Hemingway’s writing concerns how best to cope with suffering and defeat. “[W]hen we got to the bottom. and its characters’ rejection of religious belief (for example. I said yes. Hemingway’s In Our Time and A Farewell to Arms. He said 155 . and Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room and Mrs. even though Hemingway was a much more experienced skier.” literary magazines such as transition and The Dial that often operated on shoestring budgets. was in over his head on the slopes but did not want to let his friends down. he asked me if I’d been scared. about a half an hour later. alcoholism. how to live with dignity in a world that is racked with violence and loss. Modernist writers wrote with relative openness about homosexuality. in Donnelly and Billings 22). and religious festivals. end in death. We had not left it. if we are any good. Most of his novels end bleakly. “Why did the chicken cross the road?. It was childish of me. often with a death. homesick for it already” (GHOA 72). which is neatly captured in an online joke. Hemingway has a nostalgic preoccupation with loss. cathedrals. His writings on food have inspired the creation of a seven-page glossary defining the dishes mentioned in A Moveable Feast alone. His detailed descriptions of European cities—their cafés. Also a hallmark of Hemingway’s work is its persistently elegiac quality.” answers are given in the style of various writers. various articles on food and eating in 156 . As the narrator of Death in the Afternoon points out to his listener. Hemingway’s richly evocative descriptions of places—particularly Paris and Pamplona—are a strength of his writing. and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you” (122). hotels.” As a writer. President John F. In a twist on the old riddle. complete with color photographs of locations mentioned in his novels. one on which he prided himself: “For we have been there in the books and out of the books—and where we go.then that he knew what courage was. but when I would wake in the night I would lie. there you can go as we have been” (GHOA 109). Hemingway often included the expression in his letters and mentioned it to Dorothy Parker. and it has remained a hallmark of Hemingway’s work for decades. and the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside—are so vividly compelling that some readers have used his books as travel guides. “Madame. sometimes even to the extent of painfully anticipating the loss before it occurs. Kennedy borrowed the phrase “grace under pressure” in his 1956 essay collection. as for example when he is homesick for Africa even before he leaves it: “All I wanted to do now was get back to Africa. all stories. who cited it in her 1929 Vanity Fair profile of Hemingway. public squares. The response in the Hemingway style is: “To die. yet. On the brighter side. it was grace under pressure. but I felt absolutely elated” (qtd. if continued far enough. prompting Hemingway aficionados to create coffee-table books like Hemingway’s Paris and Hemingway’s Spain. Profiles in Courage. works of art. In the rain. listening. Hemingway’s writings, and even a cookbook of recipes for the dishes featured in various Hemingway works. He repeatedly emphasized that writing should be based on personal experience: “You throw it all away and invent from what you know. I should have said that sooner. That’s all there is to writing. That, a perfect ear (call it selective absolute pitch), the devotion to your work and respect for it that a priest of God has for his, and then have the guts of a burglar, no conscience except to writing, and you’re in, gentlemen. It’s easy” (“Art” 134). PERCEPTIONS OF HEMINGWAY’S WORK Hemingway’s books were unevenly received by both reviewers and the public. Both In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises were very successful, although as Hemingway scholar Susan F. Beegel observes, neither could compete with a blockbuster like Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel, Gone with the Wind.His short story collections were well received, but To Have and Have Not was published to mixed reviews. His nonfiction works, Death in the Afternoon and Green Hills of Africa, sold less well and were largely panned by the critics. His reputation revived first with the 1940 publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls and again, after the disappointing Across the River and Into the Trees, with The Old Man and the Sea in 1952. However, both of these initially acclaimed works have declined in reputation somewhat since their first enthusiastic reception. Many of his novels and short stories have been made into films, and his works are regularly taught in high school and college classrooms around the world. His posthumous works, although heavily edited, have sold well, and although Islands in the Stream and True at First Light are inferior to his best work, their publication seems to have done little harm to his reputation. Because of its sensational subject matter concerning sexual transformation, The Garden of Eden has provoked perhaps the most interest, although A Moveable Feast is arguably the best of the posthumously published works. Because in his fiction Hemingway employed the language people used in everyday conversation, he had trouble with censorship of his language all his life. The first story in In Our Time, “Up in Michigan,” 157 had to be replaced because its sexual content might have caused the publisher a legal battle on obscenity charges. The first paragraph of the short story “Mr. and Mrs. Elliot” was revised to remove the repetitive and potentially offensive references to how the couple “tried very hard to have a baby” (Reynolds, Paris 292). When Scribner’s Magazine published A Farewell to Arms, it replaced some of Hemingway’s language with blanks, but the magazine was still banned in Boston because of moral objections to the sexual content of the story. “Condom” was cut from Green Hills of Africa when it was published in Scribner’s Magazine (Reynolds, 1930s 205–6). To twenty-first-century readers the censorship seems oddly focused, however. As Michael Reynolds points out with respect to the publication of “White Man, Black Man, Alphabet Man,” one of the stories that later made up To Have and Have Not,“Esquire, not allowed to say that a person was ‘kicked in the ass,’ had no trouble printing this story’s numerous references to Wesley as ‘the nigger’ ” (1930s 217). Contemporary readers of the last three decades have objected to certain elements in Hemingway’s work that they deem immoral or at least troubling. Feminist literary critics such as Judith Fetterley and Millicent Bell have complained of what they perceive as Hemingway’s hostility toward women. Toni Morrison, the African- American novelist who, like Hemingway, has won both the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize, has criticized the way in which Hemingway has constructed an Africanist presence in his writings, specifically in To Have and Have Not and The Garden of Eden. Scholar Debra Moddelmog has pointed out the obliviousness of Harry’s protagonist to his own privilege in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Hemingway’s attitudes toward homosexuality can also be disturbing. When Jake Barnes wants to punch one of the gays who enter the dance club with Brett, it is difficult to tell whether Hemingway sympathizes or disapproves. Finally, environmentalists and animal rights supporters have objected to the hunting, fishing, and bullfighting scenes in Hemingway’s work on the grounds that they glorify cruelty to animals and the destruction of species. 158 Some of these charges have arisen in part because most of the critics who have studied Hemingway’s work have been white heterosexual men of European descent, and they have emphasized the presence in Hemingway’s work of the elements that most interested them: “When potential readers reject Hemingway as indifferent to minorities and hostile to women, they are often responding not to Hemingway’s fiction, but to the indifference and hostility of some of his early critics, and a negative image of the author those influential first admirers unintentionally projected” (Beegel, “Conclusion” 277). Hemingway’s attitudes are more complicated than has generally been appreciated. In his work he often couples ugly expressions of sexism, racism, or anti-Semitism, on one hand, with an imaginative and sympathetic depiction of the effects of such cruelty on the other. That schizophrenic tension between Hemingway’s own worst impulses and his empathy for another’s suffering explains why he is his best and most ethical self in his work as an artist. One of Hemingway’s oldest published short stories, for example, “Up in Michigan,” describes a date rape from the point of view of the female victim, a young waitress named Liz Coates. The fact that he originally wanted this story to appear as the first story in In Our Time suggests that he believed that the trauma of rape paralleled the trauma of combat. Many of the other women characters in his writings are more complex than earlier critics would have readers believe. For example, the heroic Catherine of A Farewell to Arms understands what Frederic never learns until after her death, and Pilar of For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of the strongest characters, male or female, in any of Hemingway’s works. Lesbian critic Debra Moddelmog has observed that critics have overlooked or dismissed as inferior such intriguing stories as “The Mother of a Queen,” “The Sea Change,” “The Simple Enquiry,” and The Garden of Eden because of their own discomfort with Hemingway’s depictions of gay and lesbian characters and homosexual themes. Environmentalist critics have noted that Hemingway sometimes expresses eco-friendly sentiments as, for example, in Green Hills of Africa when he describes the damage 159 caused by human exploitation of the earth (284). More than once Hemingway writes from the point of view of the hunted animal or the bull in the ring, an approach that suggests that Hemingway possessed a more nuanced view of these activities than is generally acknowledged. For example, in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” he describes the lion’s shooting from the lion’s point of view, and in Chapter X of In Our Time he presents the suffering of the horse in the bullring in horrifying detail. He closes “On the Quai at Smyrna” with the cruelty of the Greeks toward the mules they had used as pack animals, and his sympathy for the abused animals is clear. Nevertheless, it’s too facile to simply dismiss these charges of sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, and cruelty to animals as biased and unfounded. Hemingway once scolded his wife for using the term “nigger” and was less overtly anti-Semitic than many of his contemporaries, including T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. But it would be foolish to argue that Hemingway was free of the prejudices endemic in twentieth- century Europe and America (any more than we, his readers, are free of the prejudices of our own twenty-first century society). It is perhaps more useful to ask if knowing that he sometimes demonstrates disturbing prejudices and disappoints modern-day expectations makes his art unworthy of appreciation or renders readers unable to appreciate it. By that standard, Hemingway’s work continues to maintain its place in the literary canon. It has been suggested that true art lends itself to interpretation and reinter-pretation. By that standard as well, Hemingway’s writings belong in the canon. Critics have examined Hemingway’s work for its biographical parallels, applied psychoanalytic techniques to explicate its meaning, dissected the various literary and artistic influences that contributed to the final product, and criticized it from feminist, lesbian, ecocritical, and postmodern perspectives. Philip Young, one of the first scholars to publish a book-length study on Hemingway’s fiction, established an important tradition in interpreting Hemingway’s work. Young developed the notion that most of Hemingway’s writings 160 featured what he called a “code hero” and a “Hemingway hero.” The Hemingway hero, often the story’s protagonist, has much to learn about how to live in the world, while the code hero, who has the wisdom to know how to live properly, is—because of his adherence to an unspoken code of behavior—a mentor and example to the usually younger Hemingway hero. In The Old Man and the Sea, for example, Manolin is the Hemingway hero learning how to live from Santiago, the code hero. In A Farewell to Arms, Frederic is the Hemingway hero who is learning the Hemingway code from Catherine. Hemingway scholars Earl Rovit and Gerry Brenner further developed this notion, labeling these characters the tutor and the tyro. Young defined the Hemingway code as “made of the controls of honor and courage which in a life of tension and pain make a man a man and distinguish him from the people who follow random impulses, let down their hair, and are generally messy, perhaps cowardly” (63). Unfortunately, the sexism inherent in his definition made it harder to see Hemingway’s women characters—such as Catherine, or Liz Coates of “Up in Michigan”—as exemplars of the code. Some of Hemingway’s protagonists—Jake Barnes of The Sun Also Rises, for example—behave in ways that seem inconsistent with the code as Young defined it. Furthermore, Young’s influence was so pervasive that it sometimes obscured other possible readings of Hemingway’s work and caused works that did not fit readily into this framework (e.g., stories like “A Canary for One” or “The Sea Change”) to suffer unjust neglect. The concept of the “code hero,” although historically important in Hemingway studies, is no longer as influential as it once was. Young also argued in 1952 that Hemingway’s 1918 war wound had so traumatized him that he returned to it again and again in his writings—for example, by giving Frederic Henry a similar injury, depicting Nick Adams as traumatized by the war, having Colonel Cantwell of Across the River and Into the Trees return (as Hemingway did) to the site of his own wounding, and focusing so relentlessly on death in so many stories and novels. As early as 1952, Young presciently suggested that Hemingway concentrated on shooting animals to avoid shooting himself. 161 Aware of Young’s “wound theory,” Hemingway resisted and opposed Young’s work, granting permission for Young to quote his writings only begrudgingly. He was similarly uncomfortable with the work of other early scholars of his writings, such as Carlos Baker and Charles Fenton. Hemingway despised critics and scholars of his work, calling them “the lice who crawl on literature” (GHOA 109). He hated to discuss the symbolism in his own writings, arguing facetiously that the professional explainers of literature needed work and that he would hate to deprive them of a living. He believed his work should stand by itself. As he once advised an interviewer, “Read anything I write for the pleasure of reading. Whatever else you find will be the measure of what you brought to the reading” (Plimpton 120). HEMINGWAY’S INFLUENCE ON OTHER WRITERS Asked upon Hemingway’s centennial about his influence on other writers, novelist Russell Banks commented, “If you want to write in American vernacular English—and most of us do—then you have to turn to Hemingway. It was his invention” (qtd. in Paul 116). Hemingway’s influence is particularly associated with minimalism, an American literary movement that began in the 1970s. Best represented by writers like Raymond Carver and Ann Beattie, minimalism is characterized by ordinary subject matter, an effaced authorial presence, a passive and affectless protagonist, very little plot in the traditional sense, the use of the historical present tense, and a spare, emotionally restrained writing style. Hemingway’s terse, impassive prose in works like “The Killers” and To Have and Have Not inspired later crime writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and other authors of hard-boiled detective novels. The famous American novelist Norman Mailer, with his direct prose and sometimes intensely masculine subject matter, is generally considered one of American literature’s chief inheritors of the Hemingway tradition. “Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates,” Frederic Henry thinks to himself in one of the most famous passages from A 162 Farewell to Arms (185). owe Hemingway a debt for their freedom whether the debt is acknowledged or not. is particularly indebted to Hemingway. wrote of Hemingway in a 1981 article for the Paris Review (301).” 163 . In his emphasis on the concrete.” Martha Gellhorn. he liberated our written language. Hemingway influenced writers like Heinrich Böll. especially in wartime settings.” in which he lists and describes in heartbreakingly specific detail the various personal items the American soldiers carried with them into the war in Vietnam. that uneasy word. Hemingway’s third wife. the American author whose Vietnam war novel Going After Cacciato received the National Book Award in 1979. O’Brien’s brilliant short story “The Things They Carried. “All writers. not so much in what he wrote (speaking like an uncertain critic) as in how he wrote. the German author whose writings about Germany during and after World War II garnered him the 1972 Nobel Prize. “He was a genius. and Tim O’Brien. after him. Fitzgerald's art was a response to his life. and his friend and fellow novelist John O'Hara recalled that at the end of his life Fitzgerald was "a prematurely little old man haunting bookshops unrecognized" (Bruccoli. He may have written the novel that defined a decade. perhaps more appropriately.in the specificity of its social milieu-Fitzgerald's fiction documents a moment in time in all its historical reality. With the clothing. Grandeur 489). in August 1940. the slang.Fitzgerald When E Scott Fitzgerald died in December 1940. The Great Gatsby (1925). His last royalty statement from Scribner's. Fitzgerald described himself as "a forgotten man" ( Life in Letters439). listed sales of forty copies of his books earning the princely sum of $13. From the vantage point of time. however imperfect the novels. "in a smallway I was an original" ( Dear Scott/Dear Max261). the dances. and The Great Gatsby is generally considered a quintessential American novel. Yet Fitzgerald captures more than just the physical evidence of that time. the automobiles. However flawed the life. and an other that exposed the dreams and illusions of a nation. Yet a half century later. He conveys with 164 . This Side of Paradise ( 1920). In this way Fitzgerald and his fiction capture some essential quality of the American myth and dream that were the focus his lifetime of personal and literary effort. He immersed himself in his age and became its chief chronicler. the fads -. Writing to his wife Zelda in March 1940. his reputation was that of a failed writer who had squandered his talent in drink and excess. Maxwell Perkins. the music. readers and critics now acknowledge what Fitzgerald rather wistfully said of himself in a letter to his editor. a documentary film. bringing to his fiction a realism that gives it the quality of a photograph or. Fitzgerald's stature as a major twentieth-century American novelist rests se cure.13. but his achievement had been overshadowed and largely blighted by his life. Fitzgerald's greatness lies as much in the conception as in the achievement. Without doubt. A new conservatism dominated America. World War I had demolished fundamental truths (for instance. S. the anxieties and fears) reflected in that world because he lived the life he recorded. a period dominated by the postwar novel. from Ezra Pound's "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" ( 1920) and T. Prohibition signalled the rise of a 165 . Fitzgerald's Valley of Ashes. during which thousands of suspected Communists and anarchists throughout the United States were arrested. and cultural emptiness that pervades the literature of the 1920s." Fitzgerald recalled in describing the genesis of his first novel. ushered in a period of immigration restriction. the U. These two strands help to place Fitzgerald within American literary history. and castration permeate the literature of the 1920s. a second defining characteristic of his art. the ideal of heroism) and notions of culture as a body of established beliefs and values.equal clarity the psychology (the dreams and hopes. FITZGERALD AND THE MODERN MOMENT Fitzgerald came to prominence as a writer in the 1920s. Increasingly isolationist. Eliot Fisher King were all evidence of the modern moment and the existence of what Gertrude Stein would christen "a Lost Generation. leaving in its aftermath disillusionment and anxiety. but it is autobiography transmuted through the critical lens of both a personal and a cultural romantic sensibility. and thus his fiction reflects all the contradictions of his age." Postwar developments on the homefront contributed as well to the sense of purposelessness. The modern world had been severed from its past. The "Red Scare" in 1920. This Side of Paradise ( 1920). "I was certain that all the young people were going to be killed in the war. World War I was a defining event for Fitzgerald and the writers of his generation whether or not they saw action in the field. sterility. "and I wanted to put on paper a record of the strange life they had lived in their time" ( Bradbury 77). Senate failed to ratify support for the League of Nations. political failure. Eliot The Wasteland ( 1922) to Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises ( 1926) and Fitzgerald's own The Great Gatsby ( 1925).S. Autobiography thus forms the basis of the social realism that is a hallmark of Fitzgerald's fiction. Images of fragmentation. waste. decay. Hemingway's genitally wounded hero. Yet verisimilitude. and they struggled to reconcile often conflicting views of what had once seemed so certain. and widespread speculation in the stock market announced a renewal of capitalism. A shift from idealism to materialism led to a boom in personal income and the development of new technologies that made possible the mass production of automobiles. the new science of psychology. radios. and refrigerators. to whole new notions about manners and mores. clearly demonstrates. were giving way to public displays of affection and speakeasies. Fitzgerald's ability to convey accurately his own generation is not necessarily a weakness. films. and particularly of the novel of manners. its citizens clearly faced a new set of challenges to the meaning of their national life. Fitzgerald's fiction of the 1920s reveals the tensions inherent in this mixture of anxious longing for the old certainties and heady excitement at the prospect of the new. as the fiction of Edith Wharton. to short skirts and the Charleston dance. Thus. for instance. sat uneasy in the modern moment. As America modernized in the 1920s. When the best writers pen them. the manners and mores of his postwar generation. jazz music. 166 . is a distinguishing feature of realistic fiction. as the title character in Fitzgerald's 1920 story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" learns all too well. a notorious government scandal over the leasing of government-owned oil reserves.of the gay. Traditional views about proper behavior and styles of dress. novels of manners both record and respond to the worlds they examine. In the midst of conservatism. a mere recorder of the fashions and amusements. just as his fiction of the 1930s captures the human cost -. it helped to account for the tremendous success of his first novel.the wasted potential and psychic dislocation -. so clearly defined. This Side of Paradise. gaudy spree and its subsequent crash. In fact. in other words. telephones. Teapot Dome. the Jazz Age was evolving. and he is certainly that. and the teaching of evolution. for it was being challenged by flappers. readers were intrigued to see themselves and their world mirrored in its pages. however. Conservatism. His critics argue that he is no more than a stylish chronicler of his age.new Puritanism. the truthful rendering of experience. a literary form that examines a people and their culture in a specific time and place and a category into which much of Fitzgerald's fiction fits. The title of his second novel. intellectual. the semi-detached narrator of The Great Gatsby. Modernism. excitement. and still retain the ability to function" ( The Crack-Up69). Fitzgerald examined and measured its cost. They were seeking. it was so full of daring. The Beautiful and Damned ( 1922). Granted. to get beneath the surface of life in order to render its moral. was itself a reaction to and an expression of the social. Already he was developing the double consciousness of which he would write in "The Crack-Up" essays more than a decade later. perhaps because his works are grounded in their social realism. even containing a comedy of manners. The novel's stylistic features. He knew it. and William Faulkner were challenging traditional forms of narrative structure and point-of-view. Fitzgerald's fiction generally lacks this experimental quality. political. which developed and reigned in the period between World Wars I and II. he did indeed develop a critical perspective on both himself and his age." It was a period of experimentation in the arts. New realities could not be dressed in outmoded fashions. This Side of Paradise is a mix of literary styles. As a literary movement. cultural. and writers everywhere responded to Ezra Pound's cry of "Make it New. "the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time. seem to 167 . FITZGERALD AND THE SYMBOLIC IMAGINATION Despite Fitzgerald's affinity for and understanding of the modern world. No mere recorder. indicates that his youthful passion for his age was already being tempered by a knowledge of its contradictory realities. Ernest Hemingway.Fitzgerald's fiction must be granted this same doubleness of recording and responding. John Dos Passos. and novelists such as Gertrude Stein. In that way. and lived it. however. and flamboyant excess that it became the text for the postwar generation. then. his fiction bears few of the characteristics of literary modernism. His first novel may have been too enthusiastically a report from the trenches. Such a world demanded a new mode of expression. but like Nick Carraway. and technological changes that were transforming Fitzgerald's world. however. for instance. he was also a product of the modern moment. through montage and repetition and stream-of- consciousness. of his time. and psychological realities. the severed head of the Indian goddess Siva as it floats down an "impromptu river" (26) following an earthquake. the rainbow cascade of Gatsbys shirts -. was a poetic sensibility and a symbolic imagination that made him a remarkable prose stylist and invested his best writing with an evocative sense of felt experience. the intimacy of anonymity in the modern American landscape as surely as Edward 168 . although less sustained. J. The Valley of Ashes. the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. but the technique is hardly innovative. The Last Tycoon ( 1941). There Fitzgerald captures the otherworldliness of the Hollywood dream factory in the sharp images of a shawl-draped Abraham Lincoln nobly eating a slice of pie in the studio commissary (48-49) and a beautiful young woman sitting atop a studio prop -. The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's symbolic imagination achieves its most sustained and controlled expression in his masterwork. and the poetic intensity of his prose even heightens his evocation of the mythic.these and many other elements of the novel Fitzgerald invests with symbolic meaning far beyond their physical reality. In the haunting image of a man and a woman perched on high stools at the counter of an American drugstore. eating tomato soup and sandwiches. In fact. he evokes as well the pathos of loneliness. In the novel's final backward look at the American Dream. As novelist John O'Hara put it to his contemporary John Steinbeck. "Fitzgerald was a better just plain writer than all of us put together" ( Bruccoli. What Fitzgerald brought to his fiction. Fitzgerald also uses a semi- detached first-person narrator in The Great Gatsby to achieve critical distance from his subject.have less to do with purposeful literary experimentation than a sort of adolescent showmanship. The poetry in effect redeems the dream. it is especially pronounced in his incomplete final novel. highlights other Fitzgerald novels as well. the first novelist is announcing his ability to master the skills of established writers. Eckleburg. the vacant eyes of Doctor T. Grandeur478). however. the authorial voice makes clear that what in its achievement may have been diminished to the tawdry and vulgar by crass materialism is in its conception a grand and glorious affirmation of the human capacity for hope. Such artistry. he credited novelist Joseph Conrad for the strategy. meaningless forms and shapes of existence. a visionary idealism. the external world is mere dross. but are nevertheless open to question because they arise from their own unique sensibilities and perceptions. truth lay in felt experience and is thus to some extent an individual construct. FITZGERALD AND THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY Fitzgerald's lyricism and symbolist mode of writing reveal an essentially romantic sensibility that not only gives shape to his worldview. Others' experiences may be equally sincere. and his poetic sensibility gave symbolic expression to their meanings. Fitzgerald held a firm belief in the primacy of the individual and his or her responses to life. as the title of his fourth novel. but also supports his thematic preoccupations. The Romantic egotism that forms the basis of Fitzgerald's worldview arises from other influences as well. the intensity of an individual's feelings endows the external world with significance and thus makes it real.Hopper's 1942 painting "Nighthawks. The Romantics also held a corollary conviction that the meaningful link between consciousness and the external world is the association of strong personal emotion with the particularities of object and place. For the Romantics. linking it to some traditional attitudes about the individual and human existence." in fact. Puritanism. Tender is the Night. Without the sensate and perceiving consciousness. America was conceived as a virgin land waiting for a people to realize opportunities denied 169 . That Fitzgerald felt deeply the poetry of the British Romantic John Keats. for instance. many of which are distinctly American. From the time of its first settlement. using a phrase from "Ode to a Nightingale. In other words. Like Keats and other Romantic philosophers and poets British and American. had provided Americans with a seminal myth about their nation and helped to shape beliefs about the relationship between the human and the divine that would form the backbone of nineteenth-century transcendentalism. a synthesis of each person's unique perceptions of and thoughts about the world." Close examination of and personal experience with the largely urban landscape of the modern world helped Fitzgerald understand the significance of its bright surfaces. is not insignificant. of the spiritual world. God had made material nature not as a mere commodity but as a hieroglyph." a kingdom of heaven on earth where. and consciousness much as the Romantics did before them. Advocating an original relation with the universe. they would thus redeem history by beginning it again. and thus its interpretation could provide a coherent system of transcendent meanings. Convinced that a providential act had brought them to the barren shores of a new world to fulfill a divine purpose. a way of understanding the ideal and the spiritual. and through this potent combination of self and universe. In the fullness of time. uninhibited by the restraints of older societies. the transcendentalists reasserted a belief in the ideal. self. Nature. This aspect of Puritan thought anticipated many elements of Romanticism. Like the Puritans. the world was a shadowing forth of divine things. All of these beliefs and attitudes helped to establish the foundation of American national consciousness and shaped Fitzgerald's own 170 . especially the American expression of Romantic ideology known as transcendentalism. they believed. and these signs and symbols essentially connected humankind to divine truth. but through the imagination. the "real" world of daily experience offered up the signs and symbols of an ideal world of spirit. For the Puritans. Both the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and the Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony sustained this view with religious conviction. or symbol. then. they would be free to control their individual and political destinies. the transcendentalists celebrated individualism. The Puritan belief in the providential nature of their endeavor extended to their understanding of the relationship between the human and the divine. spoke directly to the individual. whose views were given most eloquent expression in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. In effect. For the transcendentalists. as it had been for the Puritans. but that ideal was apprehended not through piety. a revelation of God. they established what Puritan John Winthrop called their "city on a hill" in the full belief that they were creating a "New Eden.them in Europe. humankind knew and participated in the divine. the real and the ideal. he could reinvent himself. of his desire to make real a dream of success. romanticism is reflected in his tendency to view the world symbolically. to those who are willing to seize the opportunity and expend the effort to attain it. spend themselves in motion. In The Great Gatsby the set of directions for self- improvement James Gatz sets down for himself on the last fly-leaf of a book called Hopalong Cassidy are the keys to that success. Fitzgerald also shares the romantic anxiety about time. in his conviction that individuals must experience life in order to understand its reality. some sort of perfect moment that encapsulates the ideal. Certainly. the desire to preserve the ideal by clinging to the moment of perfection and thus redeeming history: "Can't repeat the past. This Side of Paradise's Amory Blaine and The Beautiful and Damned's Anthony Patch. thus becoming his own ideal. a projection of Gatsby's consciousness. sensation. one of the promises of the American Dream is material success of the sort that Jay Gatsby and his mentor Dan Cody epitomize.romantic response to life. and phenomena in a restless search for authenticity. to find in the "real" evidence of the ideal. if not more. Fitzgerald's romantic response to life also made him a perceptive interpreter of the ultimate myth of national longing. It surfaces as well in his privileging of experience. In a new world. a number of promises. For many. 171 . "Why of course you can!" ( Gatsby 116). for instance. This romantic sensibility also gives Fitzgerald a heightened sensitivity to the possibilities of life that manifests itself as an aspiration to. With its emphasis on a kind of rugged individualism that is frequently associated with the frontier. FITZGERALD AND THE AMERICAN DREAM In its very conception. Through discipline and industry a poor boy from the Midwest could rise to fortune and fame." Gatsby cries incredulously. and even a longing for. Nobody else's experience will do. than a living being fraught with human imperfections. The Great Gatsby's Daisy Buchanan. the American Dream. the American Dream encapsulates a romantic ideal. Thus he and his fictional protagonists. that symbol of the new and the unsullied. especially those of his early novels. is as much. the American Dream is a promise. according to Fitzgerald. Yet Gatsby falls short of his dream. It stands in opposition to European civilizations. was harder to utter. by the prejudices of privilege. but America. most responded. It was the aspiration rather than the trivializing commercial element to which Fitzgerald. Yet as the concluding paragraphs of The Great Gatsby make clear. Thus. They sought to make real an ideal with all the naive good faith of the original settlers. Recognizing these two strands of the American Dream (in part because he was himself torn between them). It was a willingness of the heart" ( The Crack-Up197). Grandeur493). . and the pursuit of happiness and the founding of a republic dedicated to these ideals. having about it still that quality of the idea. the dream also offers the hope of freedom and equality. simply lacks the ability to create a world "commensurate to [its] capacity for wonder" (Gatsby189). too. Nick Carraway can indeed tell Gatsby. . Humankind. Fitzgerald became one of its chief chroniclers. He admired his Jay Gatsbys and Monroe Stahrs not merely because they epitomized the rag-to-riches strand of the dream. Fitzgerald recognized something more than material success in the dream's promise. it has somehow failed. in all its fallibility. but primarily because they desired so much more than money and position. the romantic idealist. were "the history of all aspiration" ( Bruccoli. so Fitzgerald's commentary on his nation and the idea of America that is the American Dream is ultimately a chronicle of failure. In a world uncorrupted by political tyranny and social divisions. does Monroe Stahr. as he observed in his Notebooks: "France was a land. England was a people. America for Fitzgerald is an idea. who has earned his money from bootlegging and other illegal enterprises. liberty. Yet for all its promise. Because it encompasses the American myth of a New Eden. and that desire enobled them and their efforts. 172 . and so. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together" ( Gatsby162). . not so much because they had the wrong dream but because the corollary dream of material success has corrupted and even overwhelmed the original. in the promise of life.Jay Gatsby and The Last Tycoon's Monroe Stahr testify to Fitzgerald's understanding of this aspect of the American Dream. and the exhilaration of life lived but also hints at the decade's dark contradictions and moral uncertainties. and like his predecessor. This Side of Paradise captured the flamboyant style of a youth culture set free by war from the strictures of previous generations and virtually created the idea of the Jazz Age. too. he. the novel's central character. Fitzgerald published The Beautiful and Damned ( 1922). In the story of Amory Blaine. Anthony Patch. the perverse necessities of wealth and style. forever connecting his name to the 1920s decade in ways that both served and hampered his subsequent literary life. like its central character. the largely autobiographical novel chronicles the efforts of one young man to realize his conception of himself in a world that is. in both style and substance. a futile waste of passionate idealism. . the excitement of ideas. they vow to make their marriage a "live. of the ways in which time and change erode the stability of self and society. as its title suggests. the sad degradations of moral carelessness. and. A huge popular success. Written. in process of enormous change. . a "romantic egotist" (23). Their pledge. the appeal of beauty. glamourous [sic] performance" (147). that is.THE OUTLINE OF A LITERARY CAREER The mature novelist who would eventually bring to bear on his fiction all of these various influences and sensibilities is only just in evidence in E Scott Fitzgerald's first novel. The novel has all the naive exuberance. the countless flappers and college kids who think I am a sort of oracle" ( Dear Scott/Dear Max59). believes in the inevitability of a singular and exalted destiny. It celebrates the bonds of friendship. for "my own personal public. the ideal of youth and beauty. In Amory's quest to establish his essential self is a desperate knowledge of transience and flux. a novel that. Fitzgerald said. lovely. 173 . soon falls victim to the vicious realities of time and change. Just two years after the publication of a novel celebrating the modern generation. however. is a slightly older version of Amory Blaine. When he marries Gloria Gilbert. above all. makes clear the cost of a life lived on the promise of brilliance. of youth. the novel not only launched Fitzgerald's career but also created his public image. that ever threatens his brash self-confidence by an over- expenditure of daring and bravado. This Side of Paradise ( 1920). and thus the novel offers a critical perspective on a nation and a people as well as on a generation. The novel that followed it. rather ironically. Fitzgerald's complex symbolic landscape also elevates Gatsby's quest to the realm of myth. Critics who complain of Fitzgerald's inability to evaluate the world that he so brilliantly records (and the life that he so intensely lived) need look no further than his third novel. a man who reinvents himself to capture a dream. readers gradually come to see him as a romantic idealist who has somehow managed. trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst. a sad nobility. and economic forces that were driving his generation to excess and emptiness. hardly the sort of reading a Depression- wearied public desired. Fitzgerald's most perfectly controlled novel.Like his stories. Fitzgerald observed. was on the surface a bleak postwar love story about the idle rich set amid expatriate life on the French Riviera and in Paris. which now. The Beautiful and Damned also reflects an increasingly pessimistic tone of postwar despair and conveys without doubt Fitzgerald's acute understanding of the inevitable price of the modern. of such disintegration. Dick. Tender is the Night ( 1934). for proof of his double consciousness. psychic. The Great Gatsby. Dick and Nicole Diver. to remain uncorrupted. Gatsby may initially be just another corrupt product of his material world. had "a touch of disaster in them" ("Early Success. despite his shadowy past and equally shady present. often ironic first-person narrative. Through his indirect. the myth of the American Dream. despairing postwar world. The Gre at Gatsby ( 1925). Yet it is also a perceptive analysis of the historical forces that gave shape to that violent. marked the end of his popular success. Its central couple. but through the eyes of Nick Carraway." The Crack-Up87). Increasingly aware of the complex social. conflating personal and public histories to expose the consequences. disordered. both social and psychic. and the novel's complex symbolic landscape reinforces this view. sinks slowly but inexorably 174 . typifies a generation at swim in the sea of historical change. Fitzgerald was able to give the story of Jay Gatsby. Seduced by the lure of material wealth. Fitzgerald found the literary forms to give them expression in a novel that is now considered a modern masterpiece. which took nearly a decade to write. resists such efforts. it is certainly one of the best Hollywood novels. expenditures of self. Indeed. In its narrative design and symbolic structure. Yet all about him the world is in process of change as men with lesser vision and greater interest in profit seek to maximize their investments and writers and directors begin to demand more autonomy over their work. Tender is the Night is a major work of fiction. but rather a Europe transformed into a vulgar carnival of chaos. The novels of his bright young men in pursuit of their singular and exalted destinies that characterize his early career -- 175 . the novel exists in two different versions because Fitzgerald began to revise it almost upon publication. the novel's central character. The Last Tycoon challenges some of the central precepts of the American Dream by asking readers to admire the habits of mind and being that Stahr embodies but to recognize -. of shared beliefs grounded in tradition and order. and despite its incompleteness.that such men are a dying breed. and even at its publication he was dissatisfied with it. Fitzgerald's final novel. but ultimately futile. they shuffle restlessly and aimlessly throughout a Europe no longer the bastion of culture. Monroe Stahr. Cocooned by Nicole's money. gives every indication of being another major work of fiction. the epitome of the self-made man. and it testifies to Fitzgerald's artistic seriousness and his ability to transmute autobiography into a universal. The Last Tycoon. complicated by his desire to find fulfillment in love. greater in some ways. published posthumously in 1941. Taken together. Stahr. and it lacks the lyricism and the symbolic framework of The Great Gatsby. The new America is simply inimical to them. and his struggle. Fitzgerald struggled to find an appropriate form for his tale.into obscurity when he abandons his good intentions and high ideals to minister to a mind diseased by marrying his beautiful patient Nicole. Yet despite its imperfections. a man of vision and industry who has virtually created the Hollywood dream factory. the pattern of Fitzgerald's five novels reveals a certain symmetry of theme and composition of which the novelist himself was quite aware. is one of the last great producers.and regret -. especially its thematic reach. pushes him to ever greater. than his masterpiece. All the Sad Young Men in 1926. its veracity. two young men. Yet inevitably. The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald places within the context of historical processes Dick Diver's own efforts to achieve greatness and thereby deepens the significance of his failure. which he quickly spent. its viability. pursue a seventeen-year-old beauty who uses all her wiles to capture the hero. While the tactic was obviously designed to capitalize on the success of the novels. leaving her penniless. as it must be given the demands of the form. The Great Gatsby. following publication of Tender is the Night. the stories themselves attest to Fitzgerald's prolific career as a writer for popular magazines. It is a summing up of the boom of the 1920s from the perspective of the crash in the 1930s. he earned a substantial income. The romance plot turns on a series of complications and reversals: Her drunken father dies. Typical of these popular romances was "The Popular Girl. Tender is the Night. In fact. 176 . and frequently wrote himself out of debt by producing formulaic romances. Fitzgerald's masterpiece. In the story. At the height of his popularity he earned as much as $4. They are tales of failure. and yet their heroes' valiant struggles and. most important. a recognition and understanding of the inevitable price of splendor and excess. Similarly." published in the Saturday Evening Post in February 1922 and never reprinted in his lifetime.000 for a story. when the wealthy heir saves the popular girl from the circumstances that nearly bring her to ruin. following publication of The Great Gatsby. a handsome and charming Yale undergraduate who represents Eastern values and a poor but worthy Midwesterner. offer poignant meditations on the national myth: its function. his tales of the west. and his final (and incomplete) novel. FITZGERALD AND THE SHORT STORY Fitzgerald punctuated the publication of his four completed novels with the release of a collection of short stories: Flappers and Philosophers in 1920.reach their culmination and achieve their most complex expression in his last completed novel. primarily for the Saturday Evening Post. the greatness in the conception of their dreams and visions ultimately affirm their lives. following publication of This Side of Paradise. all is resolved. There.This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned -. and Taps at Reveille in 1935. Tales of the Jazz Age following publication of The Beautiful and Damned in 1922. tales that attest to his artistic control of both form and content." he wrote in his Notebooks of the 1930s." he noted. Fitzgerald justified his efforts with the argument that the money he earned from writing magazine stories would buy him the freedom to pursue his serious fiction. In fact. it was the extra I had. explores the price of disorder and moral carelessness by tracing the efforts of Charlie Wales." for instance. "my pen freezes and my talent vanishes over the hill" ( Life in Letters444). in every story. which focuses on Dexter Green's idealistic love of and subsequent 177 .Fitzgerald was a master at writing such stories. Similarly. a man who lost everything that mattered in the boom. "The price was high. The majority of his 164 published short stories are indeed forgettable. "I have asked a lot of my emotions -. Novelist Charles Norris. but many of his friends feared that he expended too much energy and talent in their production. but me more intimately than these. to regain custody of his daughter Honoria. not a tear. for instance.'" he wrote to the author. as Fitzgerald eventually acknowledged. right up with [ Joseph Rudyard] Kipling. "Babylon Revisited. like Tender is the Night. several seem to anticipate or repeat not only thematic concerns. "You can re-christen that worthy periodical 'The Grave-Yard of the Genius of F. "Winter Dreams" ( 1922). written. at great cost to both his emotional life and his professional career. despite his need for the income they would have provided. In May 1940. but eventually he found himself disgusted by his own trivialities and unable to produce them. because there was one little drop of something not blood. Now it is gone" (131). "As soon as I feel I am writing to a cheap specification." All of his best stories are connected thematically to his novels. he confessed in a letter to Zelda that he could no longer write the commercial short story. not my seed. Yet many of his stories are among the masterworks of the genre. but also plot elements and figurative motifs that are integral to the novels. Perhaps the best of the lot is his 1931 story "Babylon Revisited.one hundred and twenty stories. "if you go on contributing to it until [editor George Horace] Lorimer sucks you dry and tosses you into the discard where nobody will care to find you" ( Meyers80). Scott Fitzgerald. warned Fitzgerald that he would ruin himself as a writer if he continued to satisfy the pedestrian tastes of the Post's readers. Then. a man for whom Marjorie has never really cared until he directs his attentions to another. not to diminish the stories' achievements but to emphasize the genesis and development of his art. During a month's visit with her cousin. Bernice realizes. While Marjorie lies sleeping. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" focuses on the unexpected rivalry between Marjorie Harvey. the chief source of her beauty. It was. After submitting to the barber's shears. the connections between representative major stories and the novels will be drawn in the appropriate chapters.in a witty tale of jealousy and revenge. after all. Bernice is the sort of "womanly woman" whose "whining cowardly mass of affectations" ( Short Stories34) Marjorie holds in contempt. and her cousin Bernice from Eau Claire. Bernice discovers the appeal of wit and verve and inadvertently steals her cousin's best beau.the competitive nature of social success -. Bernice takes 178 . his most significant literary contribution. Based on a detailed memo in which Fitzgerald advised his younger sister Annabel on strategies to achieve popularity with boys ( Correspondence15-18). Because this study focuses on Fitzgerald's novels. Bernice. a jealous Marjorie. anticipates some of the themes and motifs of The Great Gatsby. as a serious novelist that Fitzgerald staked his reputation. Fitzgerald explores one of his characteristic subjects -. Under Marjorie's tutelage. To refuse. as she had promised to do. the self-absorbed representative of the new generation. In "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" ( 1920). for instance. an attractive but dull young woman. will expose her to ridicule by revealing the superficiality of her new image. Yet a brief analysis of several of his best stories gives some indication of both the range and depth of Fitzgerald's short fiction. who has been feeding Bernice her lines. enjoys anything but the social success that her wealth and status have granted her in her hometown. one of his most anthologized stories. she realizes "that her chance at beauty had been sacrificed to the jealous whim of a selfish girl" ( Short Stories45) and exacts her own revenge. the sort of woman who can glide no more than three or four feet on the dance floor before a new partner cuts in. calls her cousin's bluff by challenging her to bob her hair.disillusionment about the beautiful but shallow Judy Jones. and a brutally honest Marjorie offers to transform her into a "gardenia girl" ( Short Stories31) like herself. Warren McIntyre. "The Rich Boy" is. in other words. and she served as the model for all of his central women characters. like The Great Gatsby. it has instilled in him a sense of superiority and selfishness. This new woman. Sweet and virtuous. As the story's title suggests. from the perspective of an observer- narrator who occasionally participates in the action and whose judgments provide a moral frame for the story. is a singular example of a type. they prefer her sort of toughness because it makes life anything but tiresome and colorless. in contrast. The clever twist of the story's ending certainly demonstrates the truth of Marjorie's assertion to her mother that "these days it's every girl for herself" ( Short Stories30) and underscores the competitiveness of social success. Told. a man whose life begins rather than ends "a compromise" ( Short Stories320). she believes that women are "beloved because of certain mysterious womanly qualities. one that in both its form and its theme is clearly connected to The Great Gatsby. the rich boy. the source of the emptiness and loneliness that are the consequences of such qualities. then.the scissors to her cousin's blond plaits and tosses them on the front porch of the McIntyre house as she flees to Eau Claire in the middle of the night. In 1926 Fitzgerald published his most important novelette. Yet the central conflict embodied by the two cousins also makes clear the changing manners and mores of Fitzgerald's social world. Anson Hunter. "The Rich Boy" focuses on Anson Hunter. who is little more than a "beautiful bundle of clothes" ( Short Stories34). The contradictions inherent in his personality 179 . always mentioned but never displayed" ( Short Stories30). Anson is at once solid and conservative. Fitzgerald's fiction makes clear. Bernice is the dutiful daughter of her mother's generation." which includes his famous and usually misquoted line about the rich: "They are different from you and me" ( Short Stories318). It is. The product of two conflicting generations. Marjorie. His money has made him hard and cynical. a cautionary tale of the corruptive power of great wealth. understands that men find boring such a woman. "The Rich Boy. extravagant and self-indulgent. embodies the age. Indeed.eventually create a rift between him and Paula Legendre. his life. "The Last of the Belles" ( 1929). hot summer of basic training in Tarleton. who. What he wants from life is nothing more than what the Patches in The Beautiful and Damned. and the story ends not with a climax. their wealth ensures. the woman he loves but to whom he cannot commit. the story's retrospective narrator. One of Fitzgerald's most poignant stories. as the story's final paragraph makes clear." is as flirtatious as any modern young woman. and the Warrens in Tender is the Night also want. the object of so many men's desire during a long. Andy. the poetry of the South that she embodies is a great part of her appeal. After all. Some years later. but with a trailing off of interest. Anson encounters Paula. even though he is "more concerned for the maintenance of outward forms" ( Short Stories328) than he is for the spirit of them. the Buchanans in The Great Gatsby. following an unhappy first marriage. Grief and sympathy seem unable to penetrate the shell of his self-absorption. When Paula marries another man. like Marjorie Harvey in "Bernice Bobs Her Hair.the losses that result from the inevitabilities of time. 180 . Ailie. her charm and grace linked in "a Northern man's dream of the South" ( Short Stories460) to its "heroic age" ( Short Stories450). in the waning days of World War I. that all are doomed to disappointment and disillusionment. Anson compensates for his own emotional emptiness by engaging in an empty affair with Dolly Karger. but she is also a belle. Fitzgerald makes clear. He then drives his aunt's lover to suicide by assuming the role of moral censor. When he learns of her death in childbirth. examines one of his most pervasive themes -. is doomed to vacuous repetition. what he wants from life is nothing more than to attract and to be loved by a woman who will "nurse and protect that superiority he cherished in his heart" ( Short Stories349). Georgia. redolent of magnolia flowers. who he casually abandons. Because Anson is incapable of growth and change. Anson is incapable of response. is happily pregnant by her second husband. regretfully recalls the loss of his youthful hopes and dreams as he tells the tale of his unrequited love for Ailie Calhoun. Superficial in neither form nor content. like his novels. he confesses his love for her. There. Schoen is nothing more than a streetcar conductor. 181 .that she accompany him to the former site of the training camp. and Ailie. he confesses. When she refuses his marriage proposal. Fitzgerald's best stories are.During that summer of hopes and dreams. "looking" especially. like the South of his dreams. When Schoen returns to claim her following the war. which are among his best. He watches as she becomes hopelessly smitten with an inappropriate suitor. but that youth. breaks their engagement. a man whose uniform has admitted him into a world not his own. the inevitable losses wrought by time. the poetic language. "for my youth in a clapboard or a strip of roofing or a rusty tomato can" ( Short Stories462). Without his uniform. These representative stories. finer ante-bellum day" ( Short Stories460). they bear the marks of Fitzgerald's distinctive style: the sophisticated wit. a Harvard-educated Andy returns to Tarleton himself. They also develop his distinctive subjects and explore his typical themes: the personal and moral consequences of great wealth. Earl Schoen. Seeking out Ailie. that give meaning and significance to human life. go far beyond the generic conventions of the popular romance that Fitzgerald ultimately came to despise and found unable to write. but she is not the same girl whose soft drawl once contained the "secrets of a brighter. In fact. anything but forgettable. with the embodiment of one illusion. the sustaining illusions. Ailie quickly realizes her mistake. perhaps the most important of which is love. Six years later. then. who has been deceived by her own desire to escape the South's provincialism and has thus misunderstood this Northerner. Andy finds himself Ailie's confidant rather than her beau. is lost to him forever. compelled by a glimpse of a girl dressed in pink organdy in a small Indiana town to recapture "the lost midsummer world of my early twenties" ( Short Stories460). in her breathless banter Andy now hears the desperation of defeat. he searches for the remnants of others. the ironic or elegiac tone. Andy asks her for one favor -. Their lives are golden. they move through the world with the ease and assurance of a lifetime of wealth and social position taken as a matter of course and full knowledge of their power to conquer all. His central characters. even their self- 182 . they flaunt convention and enjoy their pleasures. Thoroughly modern and protected by their status. and to share its brilliance. STYLE The links between Fitzgerald's stories and novels and indeed between the novels themselves make clear some of the defining characteristics of his work. Beautiful and self-absorbed. and the anxieties of want and need. For the Fitzgerald male. stultifying occupations. pleasure. Insulated by their wealth from the brutal realities of hard physical labor. believe themselves triumphantly validated by the legal victory that restores Anthony's long-anticipated inheritance at the end of The Beautiful and Damned.THE ELEMENTS OF THE FITZGERALD NOVEL: CHARACTER. mere shadows of their former brilliant selves. From within this privileged class. Tender is the Night's Nicole Diver. both socially and economically. yet in spite of their experience of the world. and even to be bored by. THEME. they know from experience. they seem to have managed to retain their essential innocence. generally represent a privileged class. for instance. will step forward. Fitzgerald's women are thus less fully realized characters than embodiments of desire. The Great Gatsby's Daisy Buchanan. Their physical beauty in some way insulates them from corruption. To possess them is to enter this world of the ideal. Privilege has also made them selfish and morally careless. Fitzgerald draws his central female characters: This Side of Paradise's Rosalind Connage. as they were meant to be. they have the time and leisure to pursue. to clean up their messes. as Nick Carraway says of Daisy and Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (187-188). The Beautiful and Damned's Gloria Patch. to assume responsibility for their benign neglect and calculated cruelties. Someone. to know its secrets. Even Anthony and Gloria Patch. It is just this innocent self-assurance that transforms them for Fitzgerald's male protagonists into ideals of truth and virtue. absorption and aloofness are proof of their innate superiority and worth; they are a connection to some universal greatness. Fitzgerald's male protagonists, as their idealization of his women suggests, tend to stand just on the periphery of the golden world of wealth and status that confer on their members' ease and happiness. Whether they are like This Side of Paradise's Amory Blaine, whose fortune and credentials make him ever aware of his second-best status in the world's eyes, or The Great Gatsby's James Gatz, who must earn a fortune and reinvent himself in order to be worthy of the woman he loves, Fitzgerald's male protagonists do not by right belong in the world of privilege. Yet they aspire to it, not for materialistic reasons but as confirmation of their self-conceived destiny and their sustaining visions. To a certain extent, they are all romantics, possessed of dreams and visions that they seek to make real. While Amory's dreams, as might be expected of an undergraduate, are rather vague, incoherent longings to achieve his destined greatness, Gatsby's are wedded to a concept, to the recreation of a perfect moment in time. The Last Tycoon's Monroe Stahr, as the ultimate dream purveyor, intends to give cinematic life to his visions of the world. Whatever the aim, however, the dream itself constitutes the central fact of the life of each of Fitzgerald's male protagonists. Their pursuit of the dream serves as the vehicle by which Fitzgerald develops the thematic concerns in his novels. Fitzgerald's recurrent themes tend toward the tragic and certainly evoke the pathos of the human condition. His central characters, those romantic idealists, begin life with high hopes and lofty aspirations, but they inevitably fall far short of their dreams. They are defeated by the fact of time, the vagaries of love, and the human frailties that bedevil our own best selves. "All the stories that came into my head had a touch of disaster in them," Fitzgerald observed of his fiction, noting the sadness that pervades his work. "The lovely young creatures in my novels went to ruin, the diamond mountains of my short stories blew up, my millionaires were as beautiful and damned as [English novelist] Thomas Hardy's peasants" ("Early Success," The Crack- Up87). This "touch of disaster" springs from Fitzgerald's understanding of lost hopes and defeated aspirations, of the passage of 183 time and its attendant losses, of the conflict between art and life, of the meaning of America and its unfulfilled history -- the recurrent themes of his fiction. A poet of lost hopes and defeated aspirations, Fitzgerald locates such circumstances in two different sources, the fact of time and the conflict between art and life, between the spiritual and the material. Both are realities that cause his romantic idealists to falter and thereby experience disillusionment with the world and, in his most fully aware characters, disappointment with the self. Time, for instance, robs human beings of youth and all its promise as well as the wonders of beauty. Youthful heroes such as This Side of Paradises Amory Blaine and The Beautiful and Damned's Anthony Patch see age as one of their primary assets. The world is all before them, not behind, and they are secure in the knowledge that they have the energy, stamina, talent, and desire to conquer it. Armed with this certainty, Amory especially rebounds from every setback with renewed hope and vigor, propelled by yet another dream. Yet if we see Anthony Patch as the logical extension of Fitzgerald's first protagonist, then we understand the disillusionment that he will inevitably face when he can no longer shrug off the physical toll of endless nights of drunken excess, when he feels every one of his thirty years and knows that time robs him daily of even more of this youth. Gloria Patch may wail, "I don't want to live without my pretty face!" ( Beautiful404), but the beauty that she and Fitzgerald's male protagonists so value is as transient as their youth. To Nick Carraway's assertion "You can't repeat the past," Jay Gatsby may counter in utter disbelief, "Can't repeat the past. . . why of course you can!" ( Gatsby116), but the truth is that Daisy does indeed have a daughter. Time and change are inevitable. The perfect golden moment is an impossibility. Thus there is in Fitzgerald's fiction the elegaic tone of loss. His characters dream big, but time-bound reality can never correspond to the ephemeral ideal; only the dream dreamed, not the dream materialized, can bring them happiness. Even on that golden afternoon of their reunion, "Daisy tumbled short of [ Gatsby's] dreams" ( Gatsby101), and for all Kathleen's physical resemblance to Minna, The Last Tycoon's Monroe Stahr cannot escape the fact of his wife's death. 184 Fitzgerald deepens the disillusionment of self-aware characters such as Stahr and especially Tender is the Night's Dick Diver by placing their personal stories within the context of historical processes. When Dick tours World War I battlefields, where the dead had lain "like a million bloody rugs" ( Tender57), he confronts the reality of social and moral changes that have also been wrought by time. In their efforts to fling off what seem to be the empty and outmoded values of the past, which had led to such tragedy, a new generation embraces the promise of freedom and personal satisfaction, only to find itself aimless, rootless, and in a state of perpetual change that denies them the stability of any lasting truths or values. Within the context of historical process, Dick's personal tragedy is thus symptomatic, reflecting the forces of time and change against which he is powerless. These forces eventually defeat all of Fitzgerald's central characters. Time is not alone, however, in working against the attainment of hopes and dreams. Equally powerful is the internal conflict between art and life, between the spiritual and the material, that undermines the quests of Fitzgerald's protagonists. This conflict is most pronounced in Tender is the Night, where Dick Diver, who begins his career as a psychiatrist dedicated to his patients and his profession and with the hope that he can achieve some personal greatness from his work, finds himself seduced away from his best intentions by the ease and beauty made possible by wealth. Increasingly bent on the pursuit of pleasure, which brings him no real joy, Dick without purpose or a dream becomes a mere shadow of his former brilliant self. When he finally begins to analyze himself, he is filled with self-disgust and loathing for what he has become -- a man who has allowed himself to be purchased and who has betrayed his own dream of self. Dick's conflict is to some extent characteristic of all Fitzgerald protagonists. They long for some ideal, sometimes just an ideal of self, but they confuse its attainment with wealth, not money itself, but the ease and beauty that money can buy. In their minds, the rich are indeed different. Their money frees them from an anxious, grubbing existence; it makes possible happiness and confers on them virtue. The monied tones of Daisy's voice convince Gatsby of her perfection. In This Side of Paradise Rosalind Connage has purchased ease and 185 self-assurance, Amory knows, with her fortune. Fitzgerald's protagonists desire these same intangibles, and so they fill their wardrobes with a rainbow array of shirts and inhabit villas in the south of France, believing that the trappings of wealth will satisfy their longings. Thus they are doomed to disappointment and disillusionment, for no thing, not even the embodiment of the ideal, can match the conception of the thing. Because Fitzgerald's protagonists only vaguely intuit this truth or are reluctant to acknowledge it if they do, they persist to the end to mingle their dreams with the things of this world, which inevitably fall short of the mark. This conflict between the real and the ideal and this confusion of virtue or happiness with wealth merge with Fitzgerald's anxieties about time and loss and lie at the heart of his questioning of the meaning of the American Dream. From the beginning of his career, Fitzgerald was a writer grounded in the American scene. From small midwestern towns to cosmopolitan clubs, from the halls of ivy at prestigious seats of learning to the manufactured perfections of the Hollywood dream machine, Fitzgerald's fiction focuses on American manners and mores. Even Tender is the Night, a novel set in Europe, is a tale of expatriate Americans who, rather like the Fitzgeralds themselves, choose not to enter into the lives of the locals but to fashion their own native enclaves, their Villas America, on a pristine spot of foreign soil. Fitzgerald responded to the promise inherent in the national myth and lived its contradictions, and his fiction reflects his understanding of it. His evocation of American heroes such as Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, moreover, and of the early settlers who sought in the New World to realize their own dreams and aspirations makes clear his intention to invest his tales with symbolic meaning. America, with its vast promise; America, with its high idealism; America, with its bounty and richness; America, a concept defeated before it is begun by the forces of time and human nature; America is thus Fitzgerald's overarching subject, his greatest theme. Fitzgerald was not the first novelist to write of lost hopes and defeated aspirations, to lament time and change, or to make America his subject. Indeed, he was not the only novelist of the Lost Generation, a 186 group of expatriate American writers residing mainly in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Yet readers respond to his characters and themes through the beauty of the prose itself. Through language vivid and immediate Fitzgerald renders experience with an emotional intensity that conveys understanding. His is a prose of intimate involvement, drawing readers into his characters' lives, responding to the narrative voice, whether earnest or disillusioned, naive or matter-of-fact. Always, too, are the images, which evoke and define without ever explaining. Nick Carraway's first glimpse of Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby, for instance, utterly fixes them as representatives of their class. Similarly, Carraway's description of Gatsby's car is an evocation of the owner's psyche rather than a recitation of make and model: "It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns" ( Gatsby68). In the end, Fitzgerald's style -- the rhythm of his sentences, the precision of his language, the intensity of his poetic prose -- is an elegant signature that defines his fiction as distinctly as his characters and their social world, as precisely as his themes. These elements of a literary career have confirmed Fitzgerald's status as one of the major American novelists of the twentieth century and sustained his reputation for the more than half century since his death. They testify to his seriousness as a writer who, at his best in novels such as The Great Gatsby and, for all its flaws, Tender is the Night, fulfilled the promise of his own grand conception of his art. They put into perspective as well the swirl of ideas and images, of influences and experiences from which he fashioned a fictional world that expressed his vision of his own. 187 Sinclair Lewis IN 1936, when the bibliophiles' magazine Colophon asked its readers to name the living American authors they considered to have the best chance of being thought "classics" in the year 2000, Sinclair Lewis easily led the list. In a similar poll conducted in 1948, Lewis was ranked second to Eugene O'Neill. Yet Lewis's reputation has declined to such an extent that Mark Schorer, toward the end of his monumental biography, seems to doubt whether it was all worth while; and his rather sour final judgment is "He was one of the worst writers in modern American literature . . . ." 1 This conclusion is not prepared for, since Schorer treats Lewis's books chiefly as events in his life; we could hardly wish for a more comprehensive view of Lewis's deficiencies, but we are left wondering how many other recent American writers did what E. M. Forster attributed to him: lodged a piece of a continent in our imagination. Schorer takes Lewis as "a prime example of that characteristic phenomenon of American literature--the man who enjoys a tremendous and rather early success and then suffers through a long period of decline and deterioration . . . ." 2 The success and the decline are admirably described in Schorer's book, but after we have finished it we may still be left pondering the nature of the achievement. 3 There is a remarkable range of opinions concerning what Lewis did or tried to do. "Main Street is the climax of civilization," begins the ironic prefatory note to the book which made Lewis famous; the note concludes, "Would he not betray himself an alien cynic who would otherwise portray Main Street, or distress the citizens by speculating whether there may not be other faiths?" The position of the author seems clear enough: here is the ageold appeal of the satirist asking his reader to adopt an "enlightened" perspective. The man whom Main Street would regard as an alien cynic is, of course, only an ordinary reasonable man who has not suffered from the limitations of a small- town environment, an ordinary man who sees it as his duty to expose the foolish and the vicious. So Lewis has been seen by Vernon L. Parrington as an American Diogenes, by Carl Van Doren as a man of 188 for Maxwell Geismar. Frederick J. He has been seen by many critics as primarily an anatomist of society. for Mark Schorer he was a novelist trapped in his own hallucination of the world as a trap. and especially toward the Middle West. Edgar Johnson has described him as out to bring down the whole of modern America from Gopher Prairie to the glittering pinnacles of business. which was his favorite subject. a collector of specimens. Alfred Kazin has stressed his boisterous good fellowship with the very people he caricatured. Finally. with no concept of realizable values toward which he or his society might aspire. confirmed Europeans in their worst prejudices about the United States--indeed 189 .outspoken courage telling the true story of the American village. He could even describe himself as a yearner after quaint ivy-clad cottages and a "romantic medievalist of the most incurable sort. Hoffman. and for James Branch Cabell the pleasure of reading Lewis was that "of seeing a minim of reality exaggerated into Brobdingnagian incredibility. however. and by Robert Spiller as an honest man crying out against the blindness and hypocrisy which destroy elemental human values. J. Donald Adams denied that there was acid in his satire and called attention to his prodigal love for mankind. K. on the other hand. to Constance Rourke a fabulist in the American tradition. T. an anthropologist. refutes the notion that Lewis gives an exact and mimetic transcription of American life. How did Lewis see himself? Variously." Lewis's examination of American society in the 1920's was so vigorous and impressive that he gave " Main Street" and "Babbitt" special meanings which these terms continue to possess. Whipple saw him as a Red Indian stalking his foes. as the mood took him. But it is not easy to determine what really was Sinclair Lewis's attitude toward America. to Percy Boynton an expositor. and for Henry Seidel Canby the standard- bearer of a code of individualism coming from the heroic age of the frontier. For Carl Van Doren he was the voice of the liberal decade before 1929. he was a writer who mistook a small arc for the entire circle of human experience and therefore was truly the last provincial of American letters." To Edward Wagenknecht he was primarily a satirist. If we can no longer be certain that his novels will be regarded as classics in the year 2000. it is not entirely a story of failure. Cane. If the story of his life is a pathetic one. Van Wyck Brooks said of an early Lewis novel. and taught Americans a new way of looking at themselves and their country. either as evaluations which are noteworthy in themselves or as starting points for further critical discussion. For the sake of placing the novels in their biographical context and of telling a connected story. that it foreshadowed Lewis's later work in certain ways. we would have to accept the accompanying opinion that we cannot imagine modern American literature without him. The present study does not pretend to be exhaustive or definitive. they do possess their literary merits. plus a number of other assessments of individual novels or of Lewis's career as a whole. Such considerations justify a chronological approach here. the collection of letters between Lewis and his publisher during the 1920's. the Sinclair Lewis reader edited by Harry E. There is a great deal of biographical material on him to be found in From Main Street to Stockholm. in The Man from Main Street. even though this approach has already been used in a number of studies of Lewis: the more important novels of the 1920's need to be read in the light of the themes discussed and the techniques employed in their less important predecessors. they are worth examining partly because of their strengths and partly because of their curious weaknesses-- weaknesses which can be traced sometimes to the writer's paradoxical personality and sometimes to the middle-class milieu of which he was the chronicler and perhaps the prisoner. furthermore. who 190 . he cannot be dismissed as a writer of meretricious best sellers who had his decade of popular success and is now best forgotten along with his books. for one saw in it the kind of world that he was to measure society by and the kind of man that he was to choose as a hero. in the reminiscences by Lewis's two wives.gave them a new stereotype for the American. Even if we were to accept Schorer's judgment that he was one of the worst writers in modern American literature. will come in for examination. The critical opinions which have already been mentioned. it is an introduction to Lewis and a contribution to the continuing debate over his place in American letters. The Trail of the Hawk. I have related briefly the events of Lewis's life. Maule and Melville H. Grace Hegger Lewis. so that it became the task of every literate American to prove that there was nothing of Main Street. nothing of the Babbitt. Steven Marcus. a man unwilling to profess the faith of Main Street and yet uncertain whether any other faith was adequate to judge it or supplant it. I have not relied on him as much as may be thought. It soon became clear that in his novels he was not really setting western naiveté against eastern sophistication. in addition to the letters and diaries which provide the basis for Vincent Sheean Dorothy and Red. "It was altogether typical . that he was quite unable to express his anguish in the one form of expression available to him." 5 In reply. as Johnson said of Shakespeare. Second. . .. goes on to say. and my view of Lewis is not precisely his. does not the comment indicate (as Schorer does toward the end of his book) a wish that Lewis had been not merely a better writer but a different kind of writer--a novelist of the subjective life? Sometimes one feels that Lewis is being tried. and Dorothy Thompson. social. after observing that Lewis's endless suffering and the fact that he was a writer were the two most authentic things about him. that the suffering did not get into the writing. and political movements of his day and sometimes longed for a return to pioneer. would it not have benefited Lewis to look outside himself to some external source of value? Paradoxically. not ridiculdng the standards of the small town or medium-sized city 191 . . Consequently. about him. . reflecting Schorer's opinion. one might first question whether Lewis's anguish could have been so intense if he had had no inner life. by the laws of some country other than his own.told of her life with Lewis in With Love from Gracie. the only myths for which he had any reverence kept him firmly locked within the prison of self. Third. even Puritan." and. a man who had apparently no inner life. as well as in many other books and articles. an ardent rebel who distrusted most of the revolutionary literary. describes Lewis as "that remarkable modern phenomenon. Main Street and Babbitt soon became standards of judgment. though I have looked to Schorer as a guide. virtues. In an excellent review of Dorothy and Red. Yet Lewis the "alien cynic" was also a local patriot and even a local booster. he was incapable of reflection or self-examination . who wrote two very revealing articles for the Atlantic Monthly. is a parable for our times. and to praise or blame the Babbitts and the Gantrys according to the caprice of the moment. almost invariably belonging to the class which he considered enslaved by conformity. but virtually from human values and society itself. to go wherever fancy or alcoholic whim took him. the dedication of a scientist to his science. each sanctuary becoming a prison as soon as attained. One aspect of his concept of freedom was an Alice-in-Wonderland carelessness about words: occasionally he made them mean what he wanted them to mean. his heroic soul had to free himself not merely from restrictive conformity and corrupting commercial pressures. When he was asked for some indication of his standpoint. The ambiguities in his novels. But his example raised as many questions as it answered. he responded by giving his readers an example of heroic behavior. have a connection with his conception of liberty. Lewis became erratic and unpredictable in his personal behavior. For Lewis the freedom of the 1920's became the freedom to ignore family responsibilities. But his florid. which Schorer describes so vividly. It became the despairing flight from place to place. Holding to no standard but this unchartered freedom." 6 But this did not prevent him from writing a whole series of satirical novels and presenting a whole gallery of satirical characterizations. Satire he called "one of those back-attic words into which is thrown everything for which no use can be found. In Martin Arrowsmith rugged American individualism reached its apogee: he lived as a hermit in the woods. characters. and certainly not attacking America by European or cosmopolitan standards.according to the standards of the metropolis. or the Orwellian image of drawn and cowed people in an Airstrip One. until he died alone and unknown in an alien land. The story of Sinclair Lewis's futile endeavor to find satisfaction for his spirit by rushing from somewhere to nowhere. Many critics have pointed out that his middle-class world was a nightmare world. at times his vision resembles that in The Waste Land of people walking meaninglessly around in a ring. therefore. and situations in his books. loud-mouthed representatives of the class which spins not and toils chiefly at salesmanship proved to be richly varied and full of 192 . and inconsistent in the handling of the themes. some of them were menaces. 193 . some of them were conspiring to destroy all freedom and all individuality.life and gusto. had sprung fullblown into existence in the world of his imagination and begun to wax eloquent. but except in his gloomier moments. He kept his faith in the American Dream. Lewis never believed that they would succeed. Lewis was never happier than when a Marduc or a Pickerbaugh. a Windrip or a Blausser. These were characters to be treated with satiric humor. clarity. such as Derrida and Foucault. A major 'moment' in the history of postmodernism is the influential paper 'Modernity—an Incomplete Project' delivered by the contemporary German theorist Jürgen Habermas in 1980. For Habermas this faith in reason and the possibility of progress survived into the twentieth century. but its cur- rent sense and vogue can be said to have begun with Jean François Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Manchester University Press. the French post- structuralist thinkers of the 1970s. For Habermas the modern period begins with the Enlightenment. and even survives the catalogue of disasters which makes up this century's history. The French Revolution can be seen as a first attempt to test this theory in practice. the ideals of reason. and progress. from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century.Chapter 4: American Postmodernism 'Landmarks' in postmodernism . Such ideas are expressed or embodied in the philosophy of Kant in Germany. represented a specific repudiation of this kind of Enlightenment 'modernity'.Habermas. a lost coherence. The term 'postmodernism' was used in the 1930s. and Locke and Hume in Britain. in his view. The cultural movement known as modernism subscribed to this 'project'. The so- called Enlightenment 'project' is the fostering of this belief that a break with tradition. he identified them as young conservatives. and slavish obedience to religious precepts and prohibitions. that period of about one hundred years. first published in 1982. Voltaire and Diderot in France. blind habit. Lyotard's essay 'Answering the question: What is Postmodernism?'. added in 1984 as an appendix to The Postmodern Condition and included in 194 . coupled with the application of reason and logic by the disinterested individual can bring about a solution to the problems of society. For Habermas. 1979). This outlook is what Habermas means by 'modernity'. truth. and as they were thereby detached from the quest for justice. They attacked. in the sense that it constituted a lament for a lost sense of purpose. when a new faith arose in the power of reason to improve human society. In Britain the term 'The Age of Reason' was used (till recently) to designate the same period. a lost system of values. Lyotard and Baudrillard. unity. that of the Enlightenment. which are provisional. fostered in order to smother difference. or the myth of scientific progress. 142). 'we are being urged to put an end to experimentation'. and plurality. he says. the latter would like. 1992. which purport to explain and reassure are really illusions.. for identity. 'totalizing' explanations of things . For Lyotard the Enlightenment whose project Habermas wishes to continue is simply one of the would-be authoritative 'overarching'. (Brooker. Under the banner of post-modernism. mainly targeting Habermas. p. and relative and which provide a basis for the actions of specific groups in particular local circumstances. These 'metanarratives' ['super-narratives']. From every direction'. 'incredulity towards metanarratives'. whose book Simulations (1981. 141) Habermas's is simply one voice in a chorus which is calling for an end to 'artistic experimentation' and for 'order . for security' (Brooker. then. and the best we can hope for is a series of 'mininarratives'.. Postmodernity thus 'deconstructs' the basic aim of the Enlightenment. takes up this debate about the Enlightenment. and after citing several other instances he writes (obviously of Habermas): I have read a thinker of repute who defends modernity against those he calls the neo-conservatives.Brooker's Modernism/Postmodernism.like Christianity. Hence Lyotard's famous definition of postmodernism. that it is. that is 'the idea of a unitary end of history and of a subject'. opposition. temporary. Baudrillard is associated with what is usually known as 'the loss of the real'. Another major theorist of postmodernism is the contemporary French writer Jean Baudrillard. contingent. in a slightly oblique manner. these voices want 'to liquidate the heritage of the avant-gardes'. he believes. Lyotard opens with a move which effectively turns the debate into a struggle to demonstrate that one's opponents are the real conservatives (a familiar 'bottom line' of polemical writing on culture). simply. p. are no longer tenable. translated 1983) marks his entry into this field. Marxism. to get rid of the uncompleted project of modernism. which is 195 . In a word. 'Grand Narratives' of progress and human perfectibility. As signs. The second stage for the sign is that it misrepresents or distorts the reality behind it.the view that in contemporary life the pervasive influence of images from film. But what. The third stage for the sign is when the sign disguises the fact that there is no corresponding reality underneath. To illustrate this. an easel with a painter's canvas on it is shown standing alongside a window: on the canvas in the painting is painted 196 . S. reality and illusion. too. in the painting. He begins by evoking a past era of 'fullness'. when a sign was a surface indication of an underlying depth or reality ('an outward sign of inward grace'. His propositions are worked out in his essay 'Simulacra and Simulations' reprinted in abridged form in Brooker. but the paintings offer a romantic and glamorized image. then. but merely of other signs? Then the whole system becomes what he calls a simulacrum. where. These paintings show the cities at night. Lowry's paintings seem to represent the basic reality of the place they depict. TV. and the horizon filled with grim factory-like buildings. and advertising has led to a loss of the distinction between real and imagined. take a device used in the work of the surrealist artist Rene' Magritte. stick- like figures fill the streets. As an example of this let's take the glamorized representations of cities like Liverpool and Hull in the paintings of the Victorian artist Atkinson Grimshaw. then. and the paintings have an air of monotony and repetitiveness—cowed. He then substitutes for representation the notion of simulation. which I will try to illustrate by comparing them to different kinds of paintings. and a forest of ships' masts silhouetted against the sky. representations of the industrial city of Salford in the work of the twentieth century British artist L. if a sign is not an index of an underlying reality. Life in these places at that time was presumably grim. in which distinctions between these are eroded. so the sign can be said to misrepresent what it shows. Mid- century life for working people in such a place was hard. the sign represents a basic reality: let's take as an example of this the. he asks. colors are muted. Firstly. Lowry. The sign reaches its present stage of emptiness in a series of steps. The result is a culture of 'hyperreality'. wet pavements reflecting the bright lights of dockside shops. 1992. to cite the words of the Roman Catholic Catechism). the moon emerging from behind clouds. surface and depth. which is Disneyland (lust as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the social in its entirety. Disneyland has the effect of 'concealing the fact that the 197 . Embalmed and pacified . but simply another sign. 154) But Disneyland is actually a 'third-order simulation' (a sign which conceals an absence): Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the 'real' country. Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real. which is carceral. which is not representational at all. (Brooker. another depiction. In a word. the second two perhaps less so. I should emphasize that I'm not suggesting that these four paintings are examples of the four stages of the sign. p. like one of the great purple mood canvases of Ed Burra. of course. all of 'real' America. in miniature and comic-strip form. The first two of these stages are fairly clear.. Baudrillard's own example of the third stage (when the sign hides an absence) is Disneyland.the exterior scene which we can see through the window. merely that the four stages can be thought of as analogous to the four different ways in which these paintings signify or represent things. against which the painting within the painting can be judged. in its banal omnipresence. it is a sign of the second type. which has no more authority or reality than the painting within the painting (which is actually a representation of a representation). digest of the American way of life. a mythologized misrepresentation of the United States: All its [the USA's] values are exalted here. The fourth and last stage for the sign is that it bears no rela- tion to any reality at all. for instance. In one way. idealized transposition of a contradictory reality. Modernism/ Postmodernism. But what is shown beyond the window is not reality.. As an illustration of this stage we have simply to imagine a completely abstract painting. panegyric to American values. More generally.real is no longer real. the sign which conceals an absence. that beyond the play of surfaces there is nothing else. is accepted as a fact. In this extreme Baudrillardian form. The idealized images of masculinity or femininity 198 . very little which a literary critic or theorist can claim to be doing. Within postmodernism. then there is. (See the hook by Christopher Norris in the Selected reading section. all is surface without depth. the 'loss of the real' may seem to legitimize a callous indifference to suffering. The grand sweep of this kind of rhetoric has a strong appeal. One might see it as a kind of latter-day Platonism. as Baudrillard calls it. reality. feminist. since all methods of literary interpretation—Marxist. for postmodernism there are certain ever-pre- sent questions and provisos. then it is hard to see a ground for literary theory to occupy. and so on—depend upon the making of a distinction between surface and depth.) Likewise. this loss of the real. In a now notorious pronouncement Baudrillard maintained that the Gulf War never happened. be part of the reality 'lost' in the image networks? In other words. Once we accept that what we see is all we get. then what of the Holocaust? Could this. and thus of saving the reality principle'. structuralist. without a belief in some of the concepts which postmodernism undercuts—history. for instance—we may well find ourselves in some pretty repulsive company. which conceals the fact that the supposedly 'real' which it represents is no longer there. clearly. if we accept the 'loss of the real' and the collapsing of reality and simulation into a kind of virtual reality. between what is seen in the text and some underlying meaning. too. this is the hyperreal. If this second aspect of the postmodern condition. ATTENTION: The crucial category in Baudrillard's four-stage model is the third one. the distinction between what is real and what is simulated collapses: everything is a model or an image. It is not easy to achieve a precise understanding of this concept. its devotees enjoying the mystical insight that what is normally taken as a solid and real world is actually just a tissue of dreamlike images. It may help in doing so if you try to think of examples other than Disneyland. that what 'really' took place was a kind of televisual virtual reality. and truth. and attitudes within literary works of the twentieth century and explore their implications. and the realist psychological novel. In the television coverage of the Gulf War we saw computer-image film of high-tech 'smart' weapons homing in on Iraqi targets. 4. They foreground fiction which might be said to exemplify the notion of the 'disappearance of the real'. pastiche. and allusion. the detective story. for instance.presented in advertisements. while the commentary spoke of 'surgical strikes' which could 'take out' key enemy installations. 2. News bulletins also included footage of pilots who spoke of what they were doing in the same 'unreal' terms. the myth saga. rather than between the text and a safely external reality. that whereas the modernist tries to destroy the past. Further. or campaign against (say) racial discrimination or environmental pollution? What postmodernist critics do I. but 'with irony' (Modern 199 . Perhaps these things are symptomatic of what can happen when the category of the real is eroded.no actual people are quite like these. If we are to revel in the boundary-free zone which results. tendencies. They foreground what might be called 'intertextual elements' in literature. though people might strive to become like them. using the terminology of video combat games. 3. They foreground irony. we will need to be sure that the 'real' is a concept we can do without. etc. for example. in which shifting postmodern identities are seen. in the sense described by Umberto Eco. for instance. They discover postmodernist themes. In this way the image tends to become the reality.). such as parody. the postmodernist realizes that the past must be revisited. and the two tend to become indistinguishable. could we condemn the Holocaust without the category of the real. may be helpful: these also are copies or representations for which no original exists . if we agree that the real has indeed been lost then we need to decide how we react to this fact. Likewise. in the mixing of literary genres (the thriller. in all of which there is a major degree of reference between one text and another. Perhaps recent events suggest otherwise. "late capitalism": transnational consumer economies based on global scope of capitalism. (See Postmodernism. 5. culture. core cultural values? A discourse with a constructed historical object? A dispersed. a crisis in ideology when ideology no longer seems transparent (see The Post-Modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge) Frederic Jameson: Postmodernism as a movement in arts and culture corresponding to a new configuration of politics and economics.ism/Postmodernism ed. They challenge the distinction between high and low culture. where novels focus on and debate their own ends and processes. identity. that is. Was there a pre-Po-Mo consensus about history. What was Modernism? Po-Mo theory constructs a specific image of modernism. or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism) 200 . Peter Brooker. and highlight texts which work as hybrid blends of the two. SUMMARY Postmodernity vs. They foreground the element of 'narcissism in narrative tech- nique. 6. the Postmodern vs. Postmodernism Differentiations: • the idea of the postmodern or postmodernity as a historical (political/economic/social) condition (an era we're still supposedly in whether we know it not) • vs. an intentional movement in arts. intentional cultural movement? Why is Pollock a modernist and Warhol a postmodernist? Jean-François Lyotard: The postmodern as a historical/cultural "condition" based on a dissolution of master narratives or metanarratives (totalizing narrative paradigms like progress and national histories). philosophy. p. and thereby 'de-naturalize' their content. 227. and politics that uses various strategies to subvert what is seen as dominant in modernism or modernity. equivalent to "late capitalism" (post-industrial. "global village" phenomena: globalization of cultures. images. after modernism (subsumes. mixing styles of different cultures or time periods.Post-Modern Artists' views: Po-Mo as a phase of knowing and practice. extends the modern or tendencies already present in modernism. which were the foundation of the modern era. ethnic. or countering features of modernism) 3. products ("information age" redefinition of nation-state identities. the historical era following the modern (an historical time- period marker) 5. visual arts. and profusion of pop and mass culture. contra modernism (subverting. artistic and stylistic eclecticism (hybridization of forms and genres. not necessarily in strict chronological succession) 2. and multi. art from outsider and non-Western cultures embraced. and cultural identities. prejudices. capital. dissemination of images and information across national boundaries. races. and constraints of modernism to embrace the contradictions.and trans-national capitalism) 4. de- and re-contextualizing styles in architecture. linguistic. a sense of a global mixing of cultures on a scale unknown to pre-information era societies) 201 . consumer society turned inside out. Ways of working with the idea of the "postmodern" Uses of the term "postmodern" 1. a sense of erosion or breakdown of national. assumes. consumerist. abandoning the assumptions. opposing. resisting. irony. "High" and "low" culture/art categories made useless and irrelevant. literature) 6. the spoils are carried along in the procession. Art works are likewise caught up in the problem of representation and mediation--of what. from what ideological point of view? Jameson: "history is only accessible to us in narrative form". History. but also to the anonymous toil of their contemporaries. They are called cultural treasures. History requires representation. history as a "narrative of what happened" a "mediated representation" with cultural/ideological interests. Whoever has emerged victorious participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate. competing views of history and tradition. Mediation. Shift from universal histories.. They owe their existence not only to the efforts of the great minds and talents who have created them. There is no document of civilization which is not at 202 . from the long durée (long time-span of historical periods). mediation.Postmodernity. for whom. and Representation Postmodern historians and philosophers question the representation of history and cultural identities: history as "what 'really' happened" (external to representation or mediation) vs. History and identity politics: who can write or make art? for whom? from what standpoint? Walter Benjamin's recognition of the non-neutrality of history: "Where are the empathies [of traditional historicism?] The answer is inevitable: with the victor. and a historical materialist views them with cautious detachment. to local and explicitly contingent histories. Dissolution of the transparency of history and tradition: Can we get to the (unmediated) referents of history? Multiculturalism. in narrative. According to traditional practice. a story-form encoded as historical. Hence empathy with the victor invariably benefits the rulers. Historical materialists know what that means.. Debord and Baudrillard) (2) "the fragmentation of time into a series of perpetual presents" • "the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and so-called mass or popular culture" (Jameson). without present content: the meaning is in the mimicry • "in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible. • No individualism or individual style. voice." (From "Theses on the Philosophy of History" in Illuminations. Hannah Arendt) Working with Frederic Jameson's categories ("Postmodernism and Consumer Society") (1) "the transformation of reality into images" (cf. ed. • Pastiche and parody of multiple styles: old forms of "content" become mere "styles" • stylistic masks. image styles. expressive identity.. all that is left is to imitate dead styles.. to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum" (Jameson).the same time a document of barbarism. All signifiers circulate and recirculate prior and existing images and styles. 203 ." "For every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably. [A historical materialist] regards it as his task to brush history against the grain. History has become one of the styles..is fed by postmodernism in all the arts and is inconceivable without it" (Jameson) • [Understood by Warhol. the way in which our entire contemporary social system has little by little begun to lose its capacity to retain its own past. Lichtenstein. sophisticated.). • "our advertising.. Ruscha] • Po-Mo as late capitalism: transnational capitalism without borders. etc. only networks and info flows. Some features of postmodern styles: • Nostalgia and retro styles. • Jameson's own nostalgia? Did this ever exist? 204 . cars. Kruger. historical representations blend with nostalgia. advertising images) • "History" represented through nostalgic images of pop culture. Rauschenberg. hip. has begun to live in a perpetual present and in a perpetual change that obliterates traditions of the kind which all earlier social formations have had in one way or another to preserve. desirable. • "the disappearance of a sense of history. colors...) through images that define possible subject positions or create desired positions (being the one who's cool. to serve as the very agents and mechanisms of our historical amnesia" (Jameson). sexy. fantasies of the past. clothing and hair styles. The information function of the media would thus be to help us to forget.. images. • The postmodern in advertising: attempts to provide illusions of individualism (ads for jeans. recycling earlier genres and styles in new contexts (film/TV genres.. typography. the tendency to see things in seemingly obvious. technology reactions. futureness. accelerated obsolescence. and national identity as accepted local narratives. binary. Faith in "Grand Theory" (totalizing Rejection of totalizing theories. Faith in. In fact. unclear bases for class and ethnic/national values. and explain everything. Modernism/Modernity Postmodern/ Postmodernity Master Narratives and Suspicion and rejection of Master metanarratives of history. and myths of. cultural unity. cultural and ethnic origin accepted as received. • Culture on Fast Forward: Time and history replaced by speed. anti- through science and technology. ironic before WWII (American-European deconstruction of master narratives: myths of progress). contrasting categories is usually associated with modernism. Master narrative of progress Skepticism of idea of progress. seemingly clear bases for unity. not absolutes. neo-Luddism. The Modern and the Postmodern: Contrasting Tendencies The features in the table below are only often-discussed tendencies. social/national/ ethnic unity. new age religions. science and pursuit of localizing and contingent culture) to represent all knowledge theories. 205 . explanations in history. Myths of counter-myths of origin. social and Social and cultural pluralism. culture Narratives for history and culture.disunity. The tendency to dissolve binary categories and expose their arbitrary cultural co-dependency is associated with postmodernism. For heuristic purposes only. hierarchies of social. the signifier). content. "As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience. Faith in "Depth" (meaning. identities. Idea of "the family" as central unit Alternative family units. the signified) over images. order. multiple identities for couplings and Heterosexual norms. party)." prior "original". loss of centralized control. value. Polysexuality. conflicting identity. control. Faith and personal investment in Trust and investment in big politics (Nation-State. authenticity of the "real". symbols. Root/Depth tropes. centered Sense of fragmentation and self. language. fragmentation. exposure of repressed homosexual and homosocial realities in cultures. local politics. of the image after photography and visual media becoming mass media. childraising. centralized Subverted order. and simulacra seem more powerful than representations.Sense of unified. the for "Depth". 206 . horizontal differences. Faith in the "real" beyond media. simulation and real-time media substituting for the real. institutional power struggles. Rhizome/surface tropes. Relational and superficial. images and texts with no "originals. Attention to play of surfaces. "individualism. image saturation. multiple. nuclear family. identity politics. Hierarchy. Hyper-reality. undifferentiated equivalent forms. Crisis in representation and status Culture adapting to simulation. micropolitics." unified decentered self. differentiations. signifiers without concern "Surface" (appearances. alternatives of social order: model of the to middle-class marriage model. middle-class. popular culture). Demassified culture. client-server. mass consumption. performance. The Web. interactive. in-time knowledge.Dichotomy of high and low culture Disruption of the dominance of high (official vs. middle-class earnestness. hybrid authoritative. subversion of 207 . dissemination. many-to-many TV. knowledge. distributed knowledge Determinacy. Paradigms: broadcast networks and individualized. Mass culture. irony. niche products mass marketing. fragmented. categories. user-motivated. official culture is normative and new valuation of pop culture. information management. the ground of value cultural forms cancel "high"/"low" and discrimination. Knowledge mastery. and marketing. Broadcast media. seriousness. contingency. challenge to official purpose. Art as unique object and finished Art as process. interdisciplinary harmony. intertextuality. culture by popular culture. validated by agreed upon Art as recycling of culture standards. authenticated by audience and validated in subcultures sharing identity with the artist. centralized one. Quest for overload. media. just- The encyclopedia. Seriousness of intention and Play. centralized Dispersal. attempts to Navigation through information embrace a totality. dependence. polycentric power sources. Imposed consensus that high or Mixing of popular and high cultures. networked. Indeterminacy. partial knowledge. to-many communications. distributed. smaller group identities. Centering/centeredness. work authenticated by artist and production. Digital. Paradigms: Napster and the Web. hierarchy. inorganic. Las Vegas Clear dichotomy between organic Cyborgian mixing of organic and and inorganic. The library as complete and total The Web as infinitely expandable. polymorphous sexuality. 208 . Design and architecture of New Design and architecture of LA and York. intertextuality. Sense of clear generic boundaries Hybridity. human and machine and electronic. centerless. earnestness. and recombinant culture. difference. mass exclusion/bracketing of marketing of pornography. human and machine. pastiche. queer sexual identities. physical limits of print media. style mixing with mainstream images. The book as sufficient bearer of the Hypermedia as transcendence of the word. and wholeness (art. promiscuous genres. unified sexualities. music. inter-connected information system. Phallic ordering of sexual Androgyny. literature). system for printed knowledge. porn pornography. He does not want to work just to earn money and please everybody." He disposes of this day -. the first cigarette. The second speaker muses about the "angles" of the day's race. the unemployed son. 1941 issue of Partisan Review.and. we assume. Mandelbaum. Thus they 209 . every day- by fruitlessly looking for a job. it makes no difference. turning the eggs. on the other hand. goes along with the system. paddling the bread with wet butter. He wants more than the "fat gods." Must such alert men accept the patterns of society? Must they be mere worshippers of fact and figures? Must they love money? Mandelbaum thinks: "Total it any way. especially those of his father. "pulling the marrow out of a cigarette. top to bottom. I couldn't put in his twelve hours. and breakfast.Saul Bellow Perhaps the best introduction to Bellow's world-to its themes." taking an "extravagant boat ride.the workaday routine is meaningless because it doesn't satisfy his soul: "The sucker scraping the griddle. self-centered designs of his parents. tells us how he spends his day "without work." 1 The gambler. is "driven": he cannot stay at home because he refuses to accept the compelling. at the same time they find that they have no values of their own. reverse the order. In the opening paragraph we read that Mandelbaum. the first speaker. What characteristic themes are stated? Mandelbaum and the gambler live in a completely alien society." or reading in the library. but even he thinks it's a "sour loss" -." The gambler agrees with him: "To get around it counts. the sum is always sunk." which appeared in the May-June. These men are less concerned with physical action than meditation and conversation. Slipping through. characters." They both rebel against the fundamentally destructive system. "Two Morning Monologues. and images-is his first piece of fiction. Because the speakers are torn by such "double" values. but the space between eventually and the present is long enough to stretch my legs in. the library? museum? the courthouse? a convention?" Bellow emphasizes painful irresolution: rebellion versus submission. after all. Mandelbaum knows that his father bought the house -." Gambling is a fitting symbol of time's ways: we are handed cards. we must act now." but he does seem to be full of self-love. He counsels himself: "Walk on the edge without falling.feel guilty or depressed. Bellow gives us family relationships as he does in his novels. Although "Two Morning Monologues" stresses the "literal" social fact. and fear versus courage. The father creates an 210 ." he demonstrates that he is proud of him. the world we know-the world we did not make but adopted. it is almost "metaphysical. He wants.the symbolic burden -." This day must be confronted. What'll it be today. knowing that it carries the burdens of past and future. is working. but it is unique. When he says that his son is a "good boy. at times. but we don't know what cards we will choose. in the end. a smart boy. and mastered. they want to know themselves in relation to universals-the gambler asks: "Who picks us out?" The world itself is presented as the necessary. So does Mandelbaum: "Eventually it will be settled. How can they live in the system of time? How can they be in and out of history? I take these questions to be crucial in both monologues. on the "edge of being. Mandelbaum's father is not a "monster. understood. Again there is ambivalence: this day resembles other days. inescapable design which challenges individual identity: "Here we are. they are. after all. another appearance which hides reality. The speakers have to seize it." At the same time he knows that he can fall." The system is. to close his eyes." Bellow suggests that "time is of the essence. yet he also feels that he is better than this smart boy: he. The speakers are concerned with more than functions of money." The gambler knows that even this edge may be an illusion. The gambler also thinks of the past he carries-not of his father's house but of his childhood: "When you come to it there's a lot that has to do with what remains of it from childhood. narcissism versus communion.long ago. his father's absurd conceptions." "suckers." enemies. when I recognize that she is alive-not only that she lives. The mother offers orange juice-little else." by mentioning the other smart boys-that he commands his son.it gives me an extraordinary twist. . And his view of the "outside" world is corrupted. like "uncivilized" natives. but unlike his alter ego. by making him feel "wrong and guilty. He is a son unsure of his identity. she is clumsy in her affection. He is a hostile name- caller: the others are "fall guys. Ordinarily she is as strange to me as though she were dead or nonexistent." The gambler also regards society as a "conventional" parent.or projects -. Walk from one side of the room to the other and a bell will ring. in the same immature way.atmosphere of competition. Mandelbaum gets little help from his mother. . Next time it will rain. The gambler. but that she prepares my orange juice before I leave and hands me my lunch -. is awed by worldly tricks. The family ties-muted though they are-suggest that Mandelbaum learns to dangle at home. I am the only son. he reacts as a "mean" boy. I remember that. But then. Although she is "much gentler" than the father. especially prospective employers. and he reacts toward the people he encounters. throw a stone at the sky and wait for it to rain. It is characteristic that Bellow's speaker regards her with more love than he does his father-at least she won't scold him! But I think she is as "dangerous" as her husband. It is interesting that he is superstitious: When you come to it there's a lot that has to do with what remains of it from childhood. he proclaims by all of his deeds-by advertising for a job. 211 . he is treated as such by those who have "purpose and money and influence. He sees many mysterious strangers. . He knows that society resembles -. Kids think they can control the world. " of skyscrapers toppling."good boy" and gambler. He takes a "long ride. Nor does he neglect other kinds of reflection. the "swishing in the heart like a deck riffled. with ideas of power. Bellow opposes movement to confinement.prefigure the doubles in all of his novels. Consider Mandelbaum thinking of 212 . he does not create exotic images to represent the plight of his heroes. We don't see much of Mandelbaum's mind. lounger and racer. more buckled and gap-jointed". innocent and con-man -. perhaps. He likes to "lounge several hours in one place." paying "little attention" to the sights. he waits at the agency. He characteristically gives us two monologues. The gambler." Bellow does not go far. he wants to open the door.not even Lady Luck." voyages. he hopes to strike "the secret panel of the sliding door. to "slip through. mirror his gentle. he thinks of the "closely curled leaves" of his identity." rather than take an "extravagant boat ride. Mandelbaum continually finds himself confined: the "stairs have become darker. finally. The "room" is the prison of spirit. Men he can "fight back with a stick. But the movement is erratic. of cards falling. violent. or non-purposeful." He also is "squeezed" by the condition in which he finds himself. than with sex. The unemployed son is "driven" from the house." The gambler wants to "get around it". reading the signs forbidding smoking and stating the rates of the agency". He is a bachelor." There are several images in "Two Morning Monologues" which recur in the novels: "rooms. he thinks of planes "colliding in all the room in the world.Both speakers are more concerned with their conflicts. doesn't mention girls -. "sitting on benches. and "mirrors." The gambler's motion is more violent: the cigarette "dizzies" him. He hears. he knows that they don't count-they can't help him assert his strength. Indeed. juxtaposing the docility of Mandelbaum to the anger of the gambler. They are not important in his "will to power" because he probably thinks of them as conventional or honest. he wants to go "through the cracks". "dead" mother. these heroes -. who. similarly. but it is safe to say that he finds no comfort with women. crossing and recrossing [his] legs with the others." Bellow also uses often-inverted reflections to express the ambiguities of life. understanding that this linkage is often amusing. but he juxtaposes this image to the sandwich he carries in his pocket. the neighbor's son. he is disturbed by those who don't look and step where they "shouldn't"." He recognizes that he is unlike the fall guys. 213 . You will find a toy prize on top.Bobby Poland." He speaks urgently. But his vision of reality is as clouded as the mirror touched by his cigarette smoke. It turns out the same. I may as well. who is the same age. no "author" interrupts their monologues. but his father thinks that he is "different. he glances at the eyes of the other players. his concern with food and prizes which await him." This typical image expresses his "practical." down-to-earth view of nature. Mandelbaum refers to finding "unusual resources" -- learning to "suck a maximum from each straw and pull the marrow out of a cigarette. Listen to Mandelbaum: "It's my father's fault that I'm driven from the house all morning and most of the afternoon. Yank it and the box opens. I don't exaggerate when I say driven. System is nothing and to try to dope them is just wasted. Earlier he sees himself in those who are out of work. he still remains close to home: he mentions the "closely curled leaves" of identity. mostly sour loss. This "brother" is an accountant." The gambler speaks distinctively: What does it amount to? Close my eyes and pick. inversions. a tiny loving cup. often uncontrollably. Consequently. Mandelbaum and the gambler speak. The style of "Two Morning Monologues" prefigures later developments. reflections: "You have to be able to recognize them. Immediately we feel that they are communicating directly to us. a toy plane. It isn't a matter you reach into yourself for. crossed snowshoes. Bellow suggests that "style is the man. Bellow mediates between the literal and the symbolic. simply." that fiction embodies personal truth. That's what it is. I'm supposed to be looking for a job. We respond to sincerely expressed troubles." The gambler refers to contrasts. Rarely does he use imagery: "This morning [the descending sun] makes me think of nothing more important than a paper seal on a breakfast food box. When Mandelbaum becomes poetic. " The vision. fifty. the verge. The "reign of the fat gods" is not simply dull: "It destroys and consumes everything. however." Bellow believes that our "Pig Heaven" contaminates human dignity-we no longer have a sense of uniqueness. we don't realize that they can be destructive. Mixmasters. thirty-seven comes out. and practical. Bellow views contemporary society as a threat. is full of "crumbs. vacuum cleaners. We become another "commodity. you see. the edge. Waringblenders. cheap tobacco. appliances.almost visionary: "That's it. the crumb of a minute before when any one of twelve. freezers and refrigerators.which "distract" us: The shops are filled with goods and buyers. the dice to the last roll. in the houses washers. glossy cars in giddy colors. In Dangling Man Joseph muses: 214 . one egg. "On either side we have the black and white of paranoia. television and stereophonic high-fi sets.bringing it up and showing it to the eyes. In the yards. we assume "false insignificance" if we don't accept the values and find failure. but it is more "poetic" than Mandelbaum's -. it undermines all quality with its secret rage. hole in your glove. Everywhere there are things-goods." There is really no free choice-we yield to social drives. novels condensed by the Reader's Digest and slick magazines. The card is dark. air conditioners. 1 Because we are surrounded by such attractive things. We misrepresent ourselves: we assume "false greatness" if we accept the values and gain success. it subverts everything good and exalts lies. and on its rotten head it wears a crown of normalcy. The terrifying density of society is always suggested in Bellow's novels. electrical can openers. like ships from outer space. it covers the human image with deadly films. sincere. In the fields were the newest harvesting machines." His lists convey the puzzling density of life. His monologue is rapid. dryers. eight. always. " relinquishing not only our ability to rebel against the system but our insight. rent postponed. and false information -." Again Bellow is able to show the doom of "money owing. open proof. the recipes. crumbstuffed tripes. First come the comic strips . . but he sees an "eternal" opposition of moha to the spirit. knows that our society has more luxuries than past societies. everything. serious news.I . for example. the obituaries." He also realizes that this condition is not to be laughed at: We are no longer able to think critically. and gossip are equally valuable or important. and finally the gossip. missing not a word. then I read the serious news and the columnists. calves' -. canned clam chowder. Look. the society news." The only redemption from moha is love.foot jelly with bits of calves' hair and sliced egg.perfectly reflects the "sameness" of everything: recipes. Erich Fromm puts the matter of lost distinctions this way: "Newspapers tell us trite thoughts or breakfast habits of a debutante with the same space and seriousness they use f or reporting events of scientific or artistic importance. heat in our pipes -. the children's puzzles. Joseph rereads the lists and stares so much at solitary objects in his closed room that he finally studies himself as a thing. cold pickled fish. ritualistically. settle down to read the paper in the rocker by the window. . paralyzing columns -. newspaper columns.he constantly offers lists of food.are "all external and the same. puzzles. But we cannot redeem ourselves or escape from moha because we ourselves are transformed. "eventually our attitude to what is going on in the world assumes a quality of flatness and indifference. . . Bowls of macaroni without salt or pepper or butter or sauce. . the ads. The newspaper-with its crowded." Not only does Bellow use the newspaper list -. Here is food in The Adventures of Augie March: The meals were of amazing character and of huge quantity-Anna was a strong believer in eating. at Dangling Man. Bellow. brain stews and lung stews. and clothing to create the "thinginess" we encounter daily. 215 . Even he has more humanity than his friend. furniture. of course. I cover it from end to end. the family page. and big bottles of orange pop.only food. Again there are no qualifications -. In The Adventures of Augie March Kayo explains that these finite things which "overshadow" us-meat on the table. materialistic view of oneself. we can see that it is absurd for us to want such uninteresting paper-paper without beauty and quality." It is easy to succumb to such a distracted. Klein is right in asserting that the things are equated with city life: "in the city there is much more to contend with. This and that. He regards the body as an egg. who stood in the streets renting out his hump for a writing desk to people who had no convenient place to take their transactions. however. hides money in his mattress.to claim that money is 216 ."nameless. Mr. " he continues to think in metaphors of things -. and the individual man isn't equal to their great sum. Now "it's the things themselves.which acquires ultimate significance is the dollar. at that." Later Joseph pictures the body in a grotesque way: "There was a Parisian cripple in the days of John Law. Augie March realizes that even art objects in the past were "dangerous". "abandons things and people to make the trip to Africa. air." Although the future rain king rages against "junk. . life becomes an "egg race. " non- spiritual. they were still related to but different from humanity. . Hoards sugar and potatoes. faceless." The Farsons. If we look "innocently" at the meaning of money. has to keep his bones from breaking and his fat from melting. Of course. who hypnotizes Minna and uses her for a malicious experiment -." And Henderson. The metaphysical concern with moha is apparent in The Victim. has to have just the right amounts of everything -.Morris. the Scottish speculator." The one thing- merely a scrap of green paper -. Brown in his brilliant psychoanalytical explanation -- "Filthy Lucre" in Life Against Death -. while they themselves go to California. the products that are distinguished. as Marcus Klein indicates.she becomes "less specifically . Joseph's friends. Leventhal meditates: Man is weak and breakable. can't eat twigs and stones. food. Things and others both are close and thick in Bellow's novels. disregard their baby's humanity-they send her to their parents.water. We don't have to go as far here as does Norman O. a woman than a more generalized human being-and a sad one. that of keeping one meager suit presentable. the difficulties are terrible. a tie. and now that technology extends the promise of an increase of wealth we had better be aware of a poverty of the soul as terrible as that of the body. of persisting to exhaustion among the stragglers in the chase after desirable things. but improvement of their lot merely by the increase of goods and comforts deprives them of the sense of reality based upon their experience of scarcity. "cover the human image with deadly films. is nevertheless not the wretchedness. his wife. the human swarms in the dry rot of Vallecas and Mataderos. old kilns and caves. however. He writes an early "Spanish Letter": For middle-class families without enchufes."excremental. "possessive mastery over nature and vigorously economical thinking are partial impulses in the human being (the human body) which in modern civilization have become tyrant organizers of the whole human life. things in general. (my italics) Poverty equals reality. Joseph. How simple an explanation! Now we can see the importance of money for Bellow's fiction. The fall into the one below is measureless. the casual American. awaken compassion. In Dangling Man. That you see in the tenements and the inhabited ruins. . demonstrate the "truth" of Bellow's concerns: money. and understood by everyone. Poverty at least forces human beings to return from moha to their own real image: Human history can fairly be described upon one level as the history of scarcity. and Iva. a shirt that costs two hundred pesetas." In his essays Bellow is fascinated by the problem of money. . stable. Its wretchedness is an ancient fact. of making a place in the budget for movies in order to have something to contribute to polite conversation when The Song of Bernadette is discussed. . immemorial." Some of his comments. find it difficult to endure 217 . One must cling to one's class. The newer wretchedness." Or as Brown puts it. But "the wretchedness" is a first step toward selfknowledge. One must wear a European suit. The lives of the poor move us. "When it comes to women and money. picked up. learning that money is merely a thing. He is persecuted by Allbee. and the phrase captures him. who insists that he lost his job as a result of Asa's blustery. that served. Augie March. for as he admits. if not the secret. " he hears his father say. to find him another job. Perhaps the following remarks indicate his unwilling attraction to it. the well-fed Asa doesn't know how to cope with threatening reality. at the same time he desperately needs it. When Joseph tries to cash a check. Tamkin. Frink. and money. In Seize the Day Tommy Wilhelm finds himself in debt to his wife (alimony payments). or associate or representative before the peoples. the banker. he wants him.to use his word-but so is the assumption that a piece of paper gives another person the right to regard him as a "suspicious character." But the very fact that he fails to understand the "money-flow" makes him close to reality. ironically enough. Only they haven't got the genuine courage to 218 . . who looks upon the poor as children or idiots. is very conscious of the falseness of money. In this "suspicious" situation the poor Allbee again demonstrates occult knowledge. and being honest or kidding or weeping or hypocritic or mesmeric. Frink. he doesn't exist for Mr. I saw anew how great a subject money is in itself. " Tamkin's Folly. Allbee hounds him.especially because he does not work. held. People come to the market to kill . not so valuable as his feelings. a charlatan psychologist. Joseph is thrown back on himself. . I'm completely in the dark. The entire incident is "foolish" -. But. raised in a poor home. He gives his last savings to Dr. at one point. nonbusinesslike replies to Rudiger. returning every day to its occupations. He is different from Mr. Here was vast humankind that meshed or dug. .poverty -. He is not so aggressive or "insane" as the psychologist. he discovers that because he is out of work. for investment in stocks. who says (with unsuspecting irony?): "Money-making is aggressive." This scene resembles one meaning of Asa's plight in The Victim. and the hotel (rent). That's the whole thing . as the secret's relative. or carried. . was anyhow beside the secret. and they erect a symbol of it." "The wrong thing?" "It looks like shares of stock.kill. So does Clarence Feiler in "The Gonzaga Manuscripts. They make a killing by a fantasy. abstractionism. He refuses to accept the bonus given to him by the city. that he should be allowed to destroy his own home -. once more. He travels to Africa. in fact. he finds that the Spanish relatives and friends of the dead poet consider poetry as "worthless" and Clarence's quest as a con- game. It's what it's supposed to be. the rain king also refuses to accept money. spirit." "Disorder and disharmony" are discussed in "Distractions of a Fiction Writer" What exactly is the madness? How does it arise? The key components are narcissism. lacking natural mystery. Look in your pocket again. Henderson.It can't be." "Then it isn't the wrong thing. Bellow stresses the "madness" of contemporary society. but he discovers that the money-flow has corrupted European traditions and disfigured poetry. The city employee merely regards him as a lunatic or criminal. Isn't that what you're interested in?" "Of course not! Certainly not!" The husband in "The Wrecker" (a one-act play) doesn't value money. When he attempts to locate the Gonzaga manuscripts. which intends to build on his property. only paper. You've given me the wrong thing. he becomes a "bum." Tommy understands the system's madness." He regards his wealth as an unnecessary burden from which he must escape. and ideals. In "The Sealed Treasure" he writes: "On either side we have the black and white of paranoia. There it is. He believes.without pay. mining stock." Like the "childish" Tommy he believes in poetry. and 219 . They act accordingly: "Is this -. Although he is worth "three million dollars" after taxes. where the dollar is less meaningful than cows or lions. The money." His heart was racing. " Marcher. waits for the Beast to spring out at him. Because our society "does not do much to help the American come of age. in the scene from Dangling Man. Gradually we begin to love our form. and Leopold Bloom are all "mad. and compulsion. Or as Fromm writes: "economic conditions .compulsion. He can no longer choose freely -. he cannot accept them as being as important as himself -- such acceptance could shatter his self-image. [make] for increasing isolation and powerlessness." He goes on to discuss impotence as a characteristic theme of modern literature. abstractionism. . that we become self-absorbed. .any choice which is made is likely to be absurd. but at the same time." The powerlessness (loved and hated) can force two reactions: this powerlessness leads either to the kind of escape that we find in the authoritarian character. . "The Beast in the Jungle" Oblomov. or else to a compulsive conforming in the process of which the isolated individual becomes an automaton. Thus compulsion enters. despite the fact that it is "cracked. loses his self. The weak narcissist must always regard others as abstractions. It is clear that Ahab. 220 . Frink. Mr. grandiose. In "Distractions of a Fiction Writer" he says that "the writer has no connection with power." Narcissism arises from impotence. loves his position of power. he is very aware of narcissism." We consider others as objects or stereotypes to be manipulated so that we can assert the power we lack. John Marcher. childish." We are always thrown back upon ourselves to establish the form to fight moha. and Ulysses. not as a human being. finding it in such works as Moby Dick. mutilated and peculiarly ignorant" self. But we are so anxious. feels threatened: he treats Joseph as a name. " it "provides no effective form. and yet he keeps thinking about it. Here are typical statements from his essays and reviews. Although Bellow does not give us this analytic picture. and yet at the same time consciously conceives of himself as free and subject only to himself. for example. Oblomov. afraid to leave our "deaf. Because ee regard ourselves as "giddy cars. . . The narcissist is caught in a neverending process. " we become nonhuman and "automatic. " Dan Jacobson echoes this: "It is worth noting that in all the books the consciousness of the hero is the consciousness of the book. rarely leaving his room. He complains that Bellow doesn't explain why Augie is an "unconscious seeker of the pleasure-in displeasure pattern. He does not want to succumb to this madness. . even monomaniacs. he elaborates on the "self-absorption" of Hemingway and his attempt to come to terms with it: Hemingway shows in his fiction a "need for liberation from dominance of the mind." Edmund Bergler writes about the masochism in The Adventures of Augie March: "The missing link consists of frantic avoidance of the most decisive human motivation: unconscious masochism." Because of this "code. The Army regards Joseph as an abstraction -. He also adopts a rigid pattern which soothes his troubled spirit. " they inhibit "serious" feelings. The same kind of relationship destroys Captain Ahab. Mr."harboileddom. Ahab and Bartleby the Scrivener are solitaries too. 221 . " a need. he resembles Oblomov. Bellow extends the range of madness.3A or IA -. Jacobson continues: "if we are to go back into American literature to find parallels for one of the strongest elements in Mr. In Dangling Man Joseph notes the compulsive way people assert toughness or-as he calls it -. The maid smokes as she cleans his room because she views him objectively. Bellow's work there are darker figures . Bellow distrusts the selfcenteredness of the French (and of the Russian writer's characters). to be named. but the very fact that he keeps a journal means that he is probably as compulsive as the others. Mr. Vanaker." This consciousness is often obsessive. Herbert Gold has written: "All of Saul Bellow's novels have contained intensely personal visions of desire at the dark limits of the soul where desire becomes obsession.not as an individual. In an article on Dostoyevsky. to break out of his self-imposed circle of abstractionism." Leslie Fiedler refers to the "hysteria and catalepsy" of Bellow's style. that is. . but they have not defined it in terms of the three components. Other critics have noted madness in Bellow's fiction.but this waiting becomes compulsive-so much so that he falls in love with It and cannot love May Bartram. Reviewing Philip Young's book on Hemingway. their taverns. At least Joseph is human because he is ambivalent. Otherwise the people who lived here were actually a reflection of the things they lived among. by asserting his power." -. to mirror his plight. I had always striven to avoid blaming them.have lost their sanity. Joseph thinks that all these people -.a joke repeated "any number of times. Moha and madness are inextricably bound: There must be a difference. Was that not in effect behind my daily reading of the paper? In their businesses and politics. . he regards the others as "common humanity. Joseph wants desperately to see himself in them. who shrewishly commands him (and Joseph). When Joseph visits his in-laws. Ironically enough. movies. Almstadt has submitted to the self-centered designs of his wife. somehow. The party Joseph and Iva go to becomes a ritual of inhuman madness. The girl is treated as a thing to be manipulated.except himself. Morris loves himself a bit more. Most critics see Joseph as a "lover. moreover. " and viewing the other roomers with contempt. 222 . organizations. proclaims his power by slamming doors. " but this consideration is slightly dangerous because the others become an abstraction. a difference between things and persons and even between acts and persons." People are "grouped together indistinctly. Mr. groups. someone says: "they come when everybody's high so that they can stand around and watch us make fools of themselves. It is very easy to love humanity." Morris Abt "objectifies" Minna. I tried continually to find clear signs of their common humanity. And he does not hurt anyone -. he wants them.relatives or strangers -.the "werewolf" neighbor." Robbie Stillman "was under a compulsion to finish [a joke] no one wanted to hear finished . . "snooping through the house. a quality that eluded me. he finds the same mad reactions. the people he meets are not because they refuse to acknowledge "split" attitudes. This hypnosis emerges as the "objective correlative" of all the preceding madness. more difficult to love individuals. " but I wonder how an "unwilling" narcissist can trust others enough to accept individual differences. Joseph shapes his idea into a universal principle. as is clear from the essays I have already mentioned. religion -. Looking back at his "older self" of a year ago.' The ideal construction often "exhausts the man. however. but if he devotes himself too 223 . in art. each finding-in conduct. There have been innumerable varieties: for study. Bellow has already given us characters -. half-formed constructions. It can become his enemy. is extremely aware of his own. the Godman of the ancient cultures. but is restrained-at times.Dangling Man also contains the "ideal construction. author of Beyond the Tragic Vision. for wisdom. but these constructions often disregard reality: Since man cannot deal with his environment unless he experiences sufficient internal equilibrium to observe what goes on around him. in money-its particular answer and each proclaiming: 'This is the only possible way to meet chaos. the benefits of cruelty." It strangles curiosity. forbidding. the despot. I could name hundreds of these ideal constructions. war. It often does." He adopts friends if they fit. in God.all orientations -- are rooted in our desire to subject chaos into ideal constructions. each with its assertions and symbols. the manager. for art. despite his amiability. one drive is toward perfect orientation. Joseph. the ecclesiastic. he says: An ideal construction." Joseph plays roles. other people must fit into it. The ideal construction is restrictive. Morse Peckham. flexible patterns around us. Reasoning with himself. bravery.Morris.he also believes in this universal principle. working "everything out in accordance with a general plan. Myron -. the maid.who live with unconscious. agrees with him: cultural history. the millionaire." Now Bellow is not merely interested in Joseph's rationalization -. he says: "He does not have what people call an 'open' look. the ascetic. an obsessive device." Joseph thinks that we are anxious creatures who establish a "form" by which we live-the form is usually "insane" because we find no proper. But the plan-because it is so rigid-inhibits "strangeness in the world. He is a person greatly concerned with keeping intact. of flowers and fruits and all other recurring pleasure that come to us . The characters in Dangling Man have submitted to "perfect orientation. He believes that Asa as few is evil. inhibiting abstractionism opposes the "distraction or even madness" of Elena's chaotic movements. he will neglect the genuinely threatening aspects of the external world. insane 224 . we see narcissism. Beard says that Asa"takes unfair advantage like the rest of his brethren. We find madness in The Victim. To fight chaos he accepts this paranoid view. He sees the other's constant play as "some freakish." Goethe reminds his reader of the Englishman who hanged himself so that he might no longer have to dress and undress himself every day." They have. they have failed to admit a "continuous restructuring of orientations. Mr. Bellow does not give us a black and white picture. -." This cold. compulsion.) Later he is disturbed by the bell. Of course. Joseph quotes from Goethe: "All comfort in life is based upon a regular occurrence of external phenomena. The changes of the day and night. but we must be flexible. He feels threatened. At the end of the novel he accepts another ideal construction. Immediately we see that he treats Asa as an object of play. in effect. he is to blame for everything wrong in the world. ( Asa likens his sister-in-law to his mother." We have to live in ordered ways. " per haps because he believes he carries seeds of madness." But this very regularity becomes dull. . and abstractionism in isolated incidents. killed themselves.wholeheartedly to orientative activity. who had died in an insane asylum when he was eight and his brother six. Joseph cannot resolve his ambivalence.these are the mainsprings of our earthy life. Asa is equally prepared to consider Allbee as evil-an evil Gentile. of the seasons. Allbee enters. "unwell. it enhances his self-image by giving him "secret" knowledge. " thereby neglecting their own "threatening aspects. Even before we meet Allbee and his ideal construction. He dreams of mice darting along the walls. . he knows about his wife's trip and his departure from work earlier in the day. the "regimentation" of the Army. it is viewed as "inflexible. not allowed to flourish." The Adventures of Augie March also presents madness. Rudiger -.process. . Renling too has a "mission." She does not show in her face "fear. like the two mothers. my own Howard." Her actions parallel the mad actions of the main characters. Miraculously Augie remains "larky and boisterous. Then Schlossberg generalizes: "Everything comes in packages. adopts Augie: he had a "teaching turn similar to Grandma Lausch's. After all. their risk-filled humanity.she is taking away their ability to choose. " seeing that "there was something adoptional" about Augie-she offers him new clothing.at all powerful." It's the only way he can keep himself intact -.do I have to say more? There's no man in the house and children to bring up. where it gave or resisted."You see how it is -." Humanity itself has become a commodity. and Mama. " to be godlike in their constructions." "Love" again comes into focus. Schlossberg begins his discussion by remarking that a certain actress is not human -. hate. Schlossberg returns to his opening remarks: "Good acting is what is exactly human. informing them that they must act craftily at the Charities office. you can bring the devil in the house. . fascination." She is mechanical-so much so that "she is not a woman. where you could be confident. Simon. Einhorn. cruelness. Georgie. anyone would do." Later Mrs. cruel abstractionism. 225 ." But he finds other "mad crusaders. Asa. . and self-centered values rob men of their humanity. The two constructors oppose each other.he understands that ideal constructions. Madness takes away our potentialities. but Anna's love regards Augie as an abstraction-a substitute-son. If it's in a package." -. Schlossberg is one of the few sane people in New York." Anna Coblin says: "I'll treat you like my own boy . Unlike the others-Allbee. Although Grandma proclaims that she is merely helping them -.merely "lame.especially Allbee -. something wrapped up. On the very first page we see that Grandma Lausch governs Augie.to be "more than human. There is brutal irony: Asa and Allbee are "less than human" because they have tried -. a hard heart. both believing they could show what could be done with the world. Renling's mission: But all the same I was not going to build into Mrs. that their thoughts will be as substantial as the seven hills to build on. to consolidate what she affirmed she was. teacher and student. settle down on it. He tells Clem that he will get a piece of property. Bellow implies by this upside-down view that the "strong" lovers are slaves of compulsive narcissism.he begins to form ideal constructions. " he says.upon children. The juxtaposition of her silliness and Roman greatness-of two different constructions -. Einhorn decides that he will teach Augie about women. and teach school.makes Augie laugh. bricks and planks. Here are two related examples. And Augie himself is tinged by it. Thus the description of Mrs. set up a home. He looks at it with humor. Although he wants to rest in his "own specific gravity.after rebelling against other patterns. " play reverse roles. and by spreading their power they will have an eternal city for vindication on the day when other founders have gone. Renling's world. but her madness reflects the madness of the entire system. Mrs. And it isn't only she but a class of people who trust they will be justified. "constructor" and "thing. he takes him to a cat-house. He views his "foster-home and academy dream" more realistically as a "featherhead millenarian notion. " sitting in his "own nature" -. so you'll be their saint and holy father. Clem sees through the project: "You'll give them their chance in life and rescue them. Mrs." He adds: "You do too want to be a king. The humor arises from the fact that crippled Einhorn has to be carried by Augie. He doesn't want the "Happy Isles. Afterwards he does." Defending himself by screaming that Clem searches for "bad motives. " Augie can't face his own madness. but we should not accept his calm statements. whose thoughts were not real and who built on soft swamp."free even of [his] own habits" -. Now Augie does want to build something "eternal" -." 226 . Renling is not so "paranoid" as Allbee. Of course. Renling is an "eternal" builder. he wants to impose his own upon others -.Bellow takes a new view of madness. " This kind of remark is "easy.but it is true only because Tamkin always sees "obsessional looks" -. He is a complete narcissist. This mad crusader is "calm and rational. boisterous business class who ruled this country with their hard manners and their bold lies and their absurd words that nobody could believe.except on his face. Surely there is truth in Bergler's remarks about the novel: Bellow does avoid explaining the reason for obsessive involvement with no commitments. He thinks: "every public figure had a character-neurosis. shadowy figure who runs away from himself and us. He favors Augie's ideal. Not only does he present the ideal academy-he shows us that Augie is "obsessively" aware of freedom. His first words to Tommy are: "You have a very obsessional look on your face. without completely noting its inadequacies. we should listen carefully. But Bellow somehow seems less detached than James. who proclaims her independence but marries Gilbert Osmond. Robert Penn Warren explains that Augie is the "man with no commitments. There is madness in Seize the Day. " but he loses this rationality because he constantly thinks of it-it becomes something over which he has no control. projecting his own illness.becomes ideal. Regard this statement: "all suicide is 227 . without underlining the tension he has between remaining free and building ideal constructions. Robert Gorham Davis discusses his "involvement and detachment" but neglects the fosterhome dream-an involvement of self. flaunting." The doctor regards the world as a patient." His statement is true-at least we know it applies to almost all of Bellow's characters -. Maddest of all were the businessmen. When he speaks about the world. His designs. Dr. and compulsive. theories. Augie remains a curious. " robbing Bellow of irony. he reminds us of Isabel Archer. Tamkin maintains that he knows how to beat the system-his investment scheme (which he compels Tommy to join) is based on the fact that he has more sense than other investors. At the same time they take away his power and freedom.to quote Chester Eisinger -. When Augie talks at great length about freedom. abstract. the heartless. This "faithfulness to his image of himself as free" -. Again Bellow is ironic. and games help to make Tamkin feel important.It is surprising that most critics mention Augie's lack of commitments. who regards poor Tommy as a kind of sport. and power. Look at "The Wrecker" Here the husband is "mad. His construction objectifies the actions of Dr. Tamkin -. He believes that money or "style" means more than love. He gains self-knowledge.in the midst of other crusaders for success. Of course. It is wonderfully ironic that Tommy courts successive losses-in marriage. compulsive. caught between two constructors. But he learns that failure is not the only ideal. Dr." Tommy. Adler praises his children to outsiders-after all. and they almost miraculously survive. Adler has lost the "family sense. there is some truth in Tamkin's remarks. The husband is saner than his mother-in-law and the city employee-the others who restrict their behavior. wants to shape some ideal construction. This joint is enchanted. in his occupation. I'm getting rid of a lot of 228 . The husband knows why and what he must do. He is in love with failure. you see. but they have not seen his suicidal constructions. he rejects him at every turn. Adler. Bellow transforms it into humor. " but his madness is comic. his masochism reflects their sadism.are funny. This is done to assert correctness. more humorous. Adler. the outsiders don't know his true feelings. " his legendary power. His madness is neither narcissistic. But Augie and Tommy recognize their potentialities for madness. Underneath his smile. By exaggerating the kind of construction the madman has. Because his son is a failure. They succumb to social regimentation. The transformation of madness in the novel emphasizes again that Bellow's views have changed. a Mrs. he cannot accept him -. Tommy's father. There is little comedy in their adventures. once had an "important position in Mount Sinai. now married. nor abstract. Tamkin and Dr." Miraculously Tommy becomes a success.for his "poetry.murder. He is obsessively concerned with destroying his home before the city does so." Most critics have discussed his murder of Tommy. is also imprisoned in his own designs. We are for him -. Bellow makes madness less Gothic.in fact. Dr. and his magic: "I am a magician. in his family -. less likely to horrify them. But Dr. and all murder is suicide. Joseph and Asa are more passive constructors than their friends or relatives. Renling or Dr. Their opponents-say. Thus he says that his daughter. knowledge. but still obsessive -. eternity-all these heal a restrictive. but the obsession is "good" -. He likens himself to Siva. He must help others (as the earlier madmen had to hurt others). There are several "ideal constructions" in the novel. rough. It is possible to look at the themes of moha and madness in terms of time. He sees a split between the contemporary world and History. We must seize the day to live "eternally. His expedition becomes obsessive." But "nowadays" people are different. he wallows in the mud with his pigs. is no longer good.he wants to live. tyrannical. In Dangling Man we can see time as a major theme (and image). Joseph suggests that "once upon a time" people kept journals to record their feelings -. Although he doesn't think 229 . he hears his own inner voice saying "I want." Even before his African expedition he does odd things: he speaks to his dead father.somehow makes him become great." Henderson's madness is similar. Myth. full of frogs. In it he uses many mythical references." And his wife finally agrees with him: "The best way to preserve the marriage is to destroy the home. but one can serve as an example. hoping that he can have as many mouths as the god has arms." But even this ideal construction should be flexible-living today implies respect for the wheel of time. Even so.past life. Henderson discovers that the water. In order to live nobly or even properly. it is necessary for self-knowledge. sick view of time. He decides to get rid of the ugly creatures.and with good reason -moody. heroic. " by living with an awareness of myth. dangerous to the soul." Each of his adventures becomes a willed act. unfortunately. The only way he can do so is by embracing the "eternal return. he screams that the land of Connecticut is contaminated. We must fight the constructions of our ancestors and Utopian visions. (Destruction and construction are linked as in "The Wrecker") Henderson's madness -benevolent. his dynamite only blasts out the retaining wall as well as them -. Because Joseph wants to live "eternally. ritual. and probably mad.the project is destructive.they "felt no shame. Somehow he must fix it. He also believes that he is "considered crazy -. we must not be constrained by the past or the future. " he keeps a journal (as people once did). so that he can really talk about his problems. So does the neglect of specific moments. Joseph thinks of the relationship of ancients and moderns. hatred. assassinated the Gods in one another and shrieked vengefulness and hurt. Amos looks only at future success.all days are now "undistinguished. and it is difficult to tell Tuesday from Saturday" -.helps him to regain his eternal view. helping him to establish some deep meanings.of himself as the biblical Joseph. We must be aware of differences within similarities. and that. He sees proper mystery missing-the absence of "high festival" -.these destroy the cyclical flow of time. and desire temporary liberty and play. he says: The party blared on inside.especially the future-as the sole meaning. it destroys this very view. But Joseph cannot hold this "eternal" view. flew together at this need as we had at Eleusis. Joseph cannot accept one aspect -. all equal. his brother. and I began to think what a gathering of this sort meant. he resembles his ancient "brother" while he lives in a pit (his room). 230 . "Thank heaven. and believes that everyone else should. we.but the very fact that he does suggests that he understands the mysterious cycle of time. as animals instinctively sought salt or lime. to give our scorn. relying on drunkeness. madness -. with rites and dances. moha." War. and at other high festivals and corroborees to witness pains and tortures. The future becomes time. When he and Iva go to the party. too. lacking the forms for them and. parts within the whole. Later he returns to a broken conception when he talks to Amos. He cries out: "There is no personal future any more. I've made it again!" This is deep knowledge: we must experience the season of change. lines in the circle-as he does when he notes: "I always experience a rush of feeling on the twenty-first of March. Only we did these things without grace or mystery. He sees present and past. In his party description Joseph is closer to the truth. away from his countrymen. Although it may seem that Joseph's neglect of the fleeting days -. And it came to me all at once that the human purpose of these occasions had always been to free the charge of feelings in the pent heart. either. He finds himself in a train station. but he sees change as erratic or 231 . Because he can see the split between generations. Asa is moving towards an understanding of change. The fears of inherited madness constantly pressure him. a general wrong. it destroys his future.as the phone connection on the first page is broken or the bell of Elena's house is disconnected. " which he cannot understand or accept. abstractionism and mystery. He has missed the train -." Allbee is haunted by his lost job.drowning everyone. discontinuous ways." Both see currents drowning them -. disregarding the present and the future." He constantly repeats the idea of destiny.the past "overshadows" the present! -. then his dead mother. And that's all the destiny they get. This past event has assumed overwhelming importance. The past is the one aspect of time respected-and feared- by the "victims. or the future in one-sided. First he remembers the interview with Rudiger. But when he tries to enter through a certain gate. Bellow relates this fear of the past to a deterministic philosophy. Allbee thrusts the philosophy at Asa: "You don't agree that people have a destiny forced on them? Well. fragmenting time. carrying a heavy suitcase. pushing through the crowd. "You can't go back the way you came." Asa is pushed into the alley.The Victim contains the same oppositions of time and eternity. They break "connections" -. It seems that "missing the train" is irrevocable. the present. He discovers dark meanings in the past. also confronts Asa. compelling Asa to think "there was a wrong. that's ridiculous. The "original sin. Asa can still change things and impose order. They see the past.but he has another chance to board the train because a "second section of it" is due to leave in three minutes. because they do. so they'd better not assume they're running their own show. two men tell him: This gate isn't open to the public. Allbee and Asa don't have any whole view of time because they don't impose proper order on their lives. He begins to be haunted by the "curse" of the past. claiming that he was fired because of Asa's "crazy" replies to Rudiger. One of Asa's dreams emphasizes horrifying determinism. his face is covered with tears. frozen movements. Bellow suggests that we must accept the past as controlling us-but we should come to terms with it by seizing the day. The pattern is set in the first few pages. taught his lesson with tears to Cyrus. But anyway he was right. Asa asks: "what's your idea of who runs things?" There is no reply. Italian or Irish. This insight gives him courage and flexibility. or mad but now "successful. who spared him from the pyre." He hasn't missed the train. buried in a Catholic cemetery. By seeing the ancients in his Chicago relatives and friends. I try to think why didn't the warmth of wisdom make Solon softer than I believe he was to the gold-andjewel-owning semibarbarian. First the proud rich man. And Croesus. Only this recovers our freedom. and condescending to a rich island provincial. Timur. that "somber city." Here we find many references to reincarnation. poor. or the various characters in Dangling Man-by adherence to one aspect of time. These tell us that Augie is not stunted -as are Allbee and Asa. who was wrong. people remain the same. right or wrong in their argument over happiness. he has adjusted to its scheduled movement." He engages him in a metaphoric conversation about the train. Augie mentions Heraclitus (a "man's character is his fate"). huffy at Solon. These references broaden the scope-from Chicago. Asa sees Allbee no longer depressed. How strange if his father "could know that his own grandson was one of these. " to Greece and revolutionary America. not simply his own problems. must have been the visiting Parisian of his day. Then 232 . Most critics quote the following passage: I'm thinking of the old tale of Croesus. This old man. through misfortune.violent. with Einhorn in the unhappy part. But they also suggest that Augie as narrator considers the human condition." The last scene suggests that the problem of time remains. who. archetypes. He thinks of his father once saying how many foreign children. One way of approaching The Adventures of Augie March is by noting "eternal return. Cornwallis. died. became a thinker and mystic and advice-giver. Allbee claims that he is the type that "comes to terms with whoever runs things. he recognizes that although times have changed. Augie recognizes that Einhorn is "heroic" -. We are not members of a different species. Augie describes this meticulous. She works carefully." When he and Einhorn 233 .like his ancestor. helping the characters to achieve a "still point. wading barefoot after the strokes of the mop and then spreading papers on the floor. The ritual meaningfully connects past and present. cyclical regularity. The passage is funny. stylized "dance" with love -. He elevates him by the comparison. drink!" And his crazy son Cambyses inherited Croesus and tried to kill him in Egypt as he had put his own brother to death and wounded the poor bull-calf Apis and made the head-and-body-shaved priests grim. but it is also wise. Croesus. feeling as "tranquil" and deeply satisfied as he did in the past. of course. gains pleasure by washing the floors on Friday afternoon. And it is not a question of the gnat who sees the elephant. one heroic initiation-a massive preparation for "service in the temple. Perhaps it is better to say that Augie mediates between past and present. for example." Anna asserts the order of the universe. The Crash was Einhorn's Cyrus and the bank failures his pyre. whose menace he managed. in effect. (She thus reflects Joseph's attempts in Dangling Man to ritualize his daily routine. and lowers the ancient. "You wanted blood? Here." Anna Coblin. recognizing that all times are "wacky" and sad. to get round. " we reclaim greatness from the incredible present." By living "eternally.) The Adventures of Augie March is." Things and human beings are properly related. The rituals stop the flow.Cyrus lost his head to the revengeful queen who ducked it in a skinful of blood and cried. There are other uses of time in the novel. the poolroom his exile from Lydia and the hoodlum Cambyses.he says that the house is "as regular as a convent parlor or any place where the love of God is made ready for on a base of domestic neatness. Bellow not only gives us the eternal return of ancient figureshe presents rituals which suggest a solution to time-a return to the roots of human nature. somehow. Thus he echoes Bellow's remark in "The Sealed Treasure": "human greatness can still be seen by us. He polishes his shoes. things don't dominate the "undefended will. Mexico.France. . Sitting in the park. seize the day. he wanders into a funeral 234 ." Initiation never stops. " he has no real future. success. Like the old men and women in the hotel. Augie steals books (as he stole earlier from the department store). It is actually a hole for him. where you are not subject matter but sit in your nature. He was once successful: he made a decent living. as part of a neverending cycle." Initiation also takes the form of the "criminal act" -. We should of course. Money. He also sees new countries -. a nonbeliever in myth or ritual -- the eternal return. Time plays an important part in Seize the Day (as is obvious from the title). But time is not seized by the hero." Of course. he was close to his father. Bringing people into the here-and-now. Tamkin offers a solution: "The spiritual compensation is what I look for. That's the present moment." After his loss on the stock exchange. Later Augie discovers the natural scene. but we should see it as linking all days. at first. tasting original tastes as good as the first man.go to the brothel. Tamkin.stealing becomes a ritual with its own forms and mysteries. it is different from a whole view of time-the one found in Augie's concern with Einhorn as Croesus. Tamkin is also breaking time: the present becomes all-important -. he soaks in the "heavy nourishing air. Because he defines himself in relation to a "wonderful past. Dr. it is fragmented and idealized. Augie "begins" his sex life.which is as bad as Tommy's "backward" vision. Tommy does have a "future" in the speculation schemes of Dr." Although this solution appears to be vital. . The end of Seize the Day suggests that Tommy discovers the "eternal return. Einhorn becomes the "old wise man" introducing him to the mysteries. Tommy Wilhelm is. he was happily married. selfrealization-all these wait for him in the stock exchange. . The future is full of anxiety. " a "state that lets you rest in your own specific gravity. I have simplified the conception. All of these initiations reinforce the idea that the "only possessing is of the moment. he has "nothing to do but wait out the day. unless one submits to madness and moha. The real universe. He thinks of the past as obsessively as do Joseph and Allbee. The past is no good to us. The old must go down. he neglects to seize the day until he sees Joan. the whole "universe" -. he is cleansed of his problems. ridding himself of the unreal past. "dangerous to the soul." This is the point: we must always rebuild-even rebuild time. we know that he is cleansing himself and his wife -.baptism. Man does not wait for time to do his work for him. He has a vision of all men in the coffin and when he sobs incessantly. We first hear the hammering of the husband.establishes a relationship of individual and environment-a relationship which is "still" and "pure. . and yet it is the same process. the woman he loves and hates. Tommy is "past words. in effect." The ritual cleansing-like Joseph's polishing of his shoes or Anna Coblin's polishing of her kitchen -. washes away his sickness by shampooing his hair: "it seemed to him that the water came from within him. Henderson tries." The Wrecker concentrates on the same sort of ceremony. conformist. But again the connection is broken: he gets cramps in his neck 235 .the money he has is a trophy of history.past entrapment. thinking of his future son as anonymous. and the words he had rehearsed he forgot. and his anger at his son-in-law disappeared altogether.he doesn't seem to seize the day. He suffers ecstasy. past reason. Rogin is overly concerned with his vision. The end of the story con tains a ritual of cleansing -. You only see what is built.by looking at the future in the present: "When there's no demolition there's no advancement.parlor. But when he speaks. it was the warm fluid of his own secret loving spirit overflowing into the sink .time is forgotten. He also tries to get in touch with his dead father by playing "Humoresque" on the violin. . at first. He uses the money. You forget what had to be taken away.in fact. but it contaminates him. to accept the past -. Then he throws it away. like the wrecker. imposing our will and intelligence in flexible ways. we are no longer obsessed by past life. Only the terrible fact of the human condition is present." We fly like the hummingbird he worships. self-satisfied. Then. and we think that he is completely destructive -. In "A Father-to-Be" Rogin sits on the subway seat. . Here it is "dark and cool" -. Joan. Now we can appreciate the various rituals in Henderson the Rain King. coherence" -. Come O come and turn us into foam. either directly or in a parodic mode. . the simple expedition will not do wonders. Hughes writes." Of course.and shoulders. Croesus. He thinks of himself as acting out Daniel's prophecy of the beasts. Henderson carries back this vision to the States. That Henderson is able to lift the god-figure indicates that not only does he embrace divinity.) But he does get closer to the truth. Henderson is near the "original place." Dahfuexists in the cub as his father exists in the lion.") Like Augie thinking of Cornwallis. he embraces a view of recurring. Actually the past is death. lifting him out of time. Jacob. and his entire quest has a familiar mythic pattern. or Columbus. He plays a deep "historical" role -. who-like himself- was an Ishmael – a castaway. . Henderson. time is lifted for sacred messages. (The destruction is not as constructive as the Wrecker's ritual. it washes away distractions.' " Rain-like the polish of Joseph or Rogin's shampoo -is a cleansing agent. etc. Oedipus.. He takes with him Dahfu's lion cub because "the king would want me to take it along. The rainmaking ritual is especially important in this context. seeing in it not only Dahfu but also Smolak. past.embracing eternity-he begins to have more inklings of cyclical movement. Lear. And the new cub is linked to his old bear. Why does Bellow use rain? Henderson himself explains: He used to "sing a song in school. While something still is-now!" Finally he tries to get in touch with the "real" past-one different from history or junk. and future have no false meanings. Because nothing will have been and so nothing will be left. Again time becomes eternal. various elements of madness. he assumes a new role-he is a rain king. He sees the "strangeness" of things-that strangeness which disrupts benevolent projects. put forth effort . 'O Marianina. (Actually Henderson. Smolak. When the future rain king attempts to cleanse the water of the frogs.a role which exalts him. as Daniel J. Moses. As he 236 . When Henderson was younger he loved a bear. Joseph. Falstaff. . He holds the lion cub. he destroys everything in sight. "calls up. Before Henderson participates in a completely meaningful ritual -. ever-present meaning. the Sungo. himself. . . he's got to survive in some form. In Africa. present. "So for God's sake make a move. Madness pretends sanity. is now clear: the Yellow Kid delights in play-in the mixture of lies and truth." If Bellow is constantly aware of the dualities of existence -. an old Chicago confidence man.we can see Truth more easily. more than "objectivity. It remains confused by such "brutal and angry comedy. confidence games -. Assembly is the 'real' Khrushchev. it should engage us with deception-with what Harold Clurman (quoting Picasso) calls "lies like truth. 1962) Bellow suggests again that we Americans devote ourselves to the literal fact. In an earlier theatre chronicle he writes: "The actors seem to have no notion of play. The typical quest in Bellow's fiction encounters tricks. Moha does not only fight spirit -. In fact. "You could never convince me that this was [for the first time.it hides it." His politics is "theatre. He suggests that the quest for truth is a difficult." Other Bellow essays suggest the same theme." The West cannot understand Khrushchev's performance because it is not used to play." If we don't see our limitations.it can only be successful by engaging in "serious play. madness versus sanity.of moha versus spirit. He is an actor (like Khrushchev) who confounds the system by his art. Bellow implies that by recognizing the pretender -.by being the pretender -." In an article in The New York Times Book Review ( February 11. Truth is. we will be like the miner in Alaska: "I have read somewhere that in the early days of the movies a miner in Alaska rushed at the screen to batter down the villain with his shovel.thinks." One reason for Bellow's "curious and festive" interview with Joe "Yellow Kid" Weil. I don't know why. 237 . ever-present task-one which must take into account various deceptions." We would expect masquerade from a close reading of Bellow's essays." The Soviet leader is likened to an actor-the "charmer" who doesn't give up the "center of the stage. time versus eternity -. without recognizing the deceptive quality of life.N." Playgoing should not be for ideas.he is "obsessed" with appearances. His "Literary Notes on Khrushchev" suggests: "It's hard to know whether the Khrushchev we saw banging with his shoe at the U. after all. acts. Is it too frivolous to play in the theatre? Does it lead to disrespect of their theories? The behavior of the actors is very businesslike. son-in-law -. dark world-like the Army. concealing. who refuses to recognize him.all play. Amos and his wife enter just in time to see the spanking. Joseph has "additional proof of my inability to read people properly. Most critics have disregarded the "party" at Amos' house. all human beings share this to some extent. but it underlines the pattern I have been tracing. The lies persist. nothing is really accomplished.contemporary society admits only a "limited kind of candor. their remarks are ambiguous or malicious. functions as the "god" of this false. Joseph tells us that people now hide their true feelings -. he lurks in the hall-half-man.Dangling Man contains many references to masquerades. a close-mouthed straightforwardness. half-wolf. He "conducts a poll" -." He compels Minna to accept his lies when he hypnotizes her. Question answers question. " "keeping his roles successfully distinct. but Amos accepts the untruth. Morris Abt's eyes are "quizzical.he was a "Machiavellian. in fact there are many things I could not mention to her. his real father is elsewhere and will some day come to claim him. The child feels that his parents are pretenders. Joseph himself should know. People pretend to say one thing. The father-in-law recognizes the deep concern expressed. Vanaker. an old party friend. he forces others to do the same. We now have the party -. We learn that when he worked he had to play different roles -. Thus Joseph asks his father-in-law how he has managed to remain married to a shrew.all the masquerades continue with greater subtlety." Perhaps the neighbor. which is contradicted by him. In his later questioning he 238 ." His own marriage is characterized this way: "We no longer confide in each other. his niece.remember the temporary job Myron offers him." Joseph desperately wants to lift the veil." Although Burns admits recognition. Joseph screams: "Don't you know me? I know you. the entire society outside of the boarding house. but dodges the question by asking him what he means. When he sees Burns. Joseph cannot understand his actions-are they sick or purposeful? Bellow suggests that conversations only introduce more confusion. Joseph acts violently: he starts to spank Etta. after she talks rudely to him." Father-in- law. Etta claims one reason for her uncle's nastiness." Or even himself. all are pretenders of some sort: "Now. he says. " Not only does he burlesque Jews at parties." And to Leventhal's astonishment -. . Allbee claims to have written a letter asking his "victim" to meet him -.he was too confounded when it happened to utter a sound-Allbee sank out of his chair and went to his knees. Beard says one thing. the actor. . . I wouldn't be inconveniencing you.lies. To which the other replies: "Why. you cheat!" The Victim also contains masquerades -. you have the whole place to yourself. and masks. "You're a lousy counterfeit. deception." Perhaps the most "comic" display occurs when he decides to move into his victim's apartment. You can put me up. then. When Asa first sees him. (The entire business world is filled with pretense." He hides his true feelings -. he thinks that he recognizes him: "He has never liked this Allbee. Mr. the note of impersonation in what he did. he acts every day with the "usual false note. and Williston lie for various reasons. But if you want me to do this in the right spirit . giving imitations. Aboard the Staten Island ferry he gazes out on the water "with an 239 .inwardly sneers: "You're two-faced. Allbee." Even Asa begins to "act. . How was it. meaning another. . you damned diplomat. Now he must discover the meaning of these various "stunts. performs: "He carried on. Rudiger. Is the performance still going on? Later Allbee wants him to get him a job-not acting but some kind of "movie work.Asa doesn't believe him. until he later discovers the letter in his box." New York is said to be as hot as Bangkok -. but he had never really thought much about him. " says Asa. You're not to be trusted. Asa cannot understand Elena's remarks about her sick child.the continent "seems to have moved from its place. Harkavy." How much is coincidence? How much is planning? But he forgets that the world is a stage. In the first paragraph we are introduced to the notion of "seems." In this "mysterious" world we have other appearances.even to himself.) Allbee is the chief masquerader. that his name came to him so readily?" The appearances increase. " Know your capacities for love! Love is." He continues to assume a balanced air. He is not the only observer of theatricality. The mask wears them! This is not to deny that life -the stage -. I have already mentioned Schlossberg. (Bellow once thought of entitling the novel Life Among The Machiavellians.will always play with us." The performance continues in The Adventures of Augie March.deception for financial gain. (Remember Joe Weil!) It is easy for gangsters to take him as an equal. The Victim ends "with a theatrical hush. fighting the anxiety Allbee's off-centered views give him. he says. "Good acting is what is exactly human. The mask should be like the face. challenge us to identify it. He is poor. the closest relationship Augie can embrace. Augie is so used to deception at home that he practices it against society. and the fact that he is an imposter-as are those around him-brutalizes it. he believes -. Before "falling for" Thea. she cannot merely wear a mask. larky.he knows he isn't what he seems. Does Thea really love him or herself? Does he really love her or Esther? Does Mimi love Frazer or him? Such questions-are they ever answered? -. and it isn't honest. Allbee. her sister. of course. and the others are not exactly human. Asa. He is an "imposter" when he loves." Here Schlossberg offers a clue to the many masquerades in the novel. But Augie doesn't only see -. they neglect their true feelings so much so that they no longer know they are acting. weak.indeed. But he has "forged credentials" -. they must be as delicate as Machiavelli. He becomes a con-man. the houselights went off. An usher showed them to their seats. pathetic.appearance of composure. When we first meet Gramma Lausch. forces himself to believe-that he loves Esther Fenchel. should be a good woman.and practice -.) Grandma Lausch "masked herself up as usual" when she gives advice of any sort-even to Five Properties on getting married. who commands the devoted attention of his listeners by equating life and theatre. A good actress. Later Mimi tells him to stop deceiving himself: "You try to look more simple than you are.reverberate throughout the novel. she is instructing the March's to "act" in the dispensary-they must not tell the truth about their financial condition. he [does] not look as burdened as he [feels]. Augie screams at one 240 . robbing it of its value. Mintouchian. to escape the ichneumon fly and swindle other enemies by mimicry." Dr. Style -. they single out the "artful" con-men. his real name-is waiting for a good proposition to equal his successful. past job. Edward the Seventh. all right!! But that's not our problem." He had once been an actor -." We are now ready for the great duplicity of Dr. Everything about him is mysterious. Kirby Allbee. for example. Garcia. Some critics have discussed in a general way Bel low's concern with masquerades. and so forthwell.deceptive. Adler tells Mr. Consider. any idea of failure.point: "Dissembling! Why. The landscape itself changes its appearance. without recognizing Bellow's use of "theatrical" images in The Victim or the "party" performances in Dangling Man.Tommy Wilhelm. Adler and Dr. Tamkin is an even more stylish masquerader. is not less capable than the next fellow in "concealing his troubles. . the master-dissemblers there are around! And if nature made us live and do as worms and beetles do. The first sentence introduces the idea of concealment -. Perls that Tommy-or Wilky. Einhorn. Seize the Day. He smokes a cigar because it is harder to "find out how he feels.like Allbee? -. Adler lies throughout the novel-he refuses to face his own loss of "family sense" -. Tamkin.and he continues to act as if he is not in the pit. insists on hiding his son's failure-and Tommy joins the act. When we 241 . But Dr. . I take the masquerade to be a unifying principle in the individual novels. with cavernous distortions underneath. we are told. but they have not looked at the texture of the concern. among . He is the "heroic" Machiavelli." But it is-as the many masquerades demonstrate. Consequently. the gold-embossed portraits of famous men." Tommy's duplicity-his concern with appearances-is "mainly for his old father's sake. Adler. Dr. Cyrus the Great." Tommy gazes at his reflections in the "glass cupboard full of cigar boxes. white and cumulous above. The idea of masquerade is established by the imagery. The Hotel Ansonia looks this morning "like the image of itself reflected in deep water.indeed. as we learn later. flashy-counts. accepts the theory. although he doesn't actually see him. a sign perhaps that "he was devious or had much to hide. Rappaport." And when Dr. and cries for the real soul of everyone. who tries to look at him closely but "gains nothing by the effort. that the human bosom contains two souls. even refusing to acknowledge the man's existence.at least partially -. thrives on pretense: "the interest of the pretender soul is the same as the interest of the social life." he suddenly sees the "imperfect and lurid-looking people" in a new way. for example. Society. the "dark tunnel. Green so that he can give him his relief check. At last George comes close to the real man. we note his concern with appearance. When he finally stumbles into the funeral parlor. he sees the corpse. Green's whereabouts. disheartening" green ink for his check. He stands pigeontoed. he writes in a "peculiar. Tamkin's appearance-as well as attitude-is odd. the society mechanism. in effect. They don't give him information about Mr. we are as mystified as the hero." Because we never know what he really thinks.of the world. His expedition symbolizes. Tamkin theorizes. In the subway." Dr. He claims Tommy has an "obsessional look. He loves them. like a parasite. Tamkin maintains that the pretender soul takes away "the energy of the true soul and makes it feeble. the "real soul and the pretender soul. his quest for the real soul. George Grebe looks for Mr." which appears in the Seize the Day collection. Although our poor "slob" is "divided.first see him. even monstrous" way. He meets a woman 242 ." We feed the pretender soul by our lust for material goods. The masquerade also functions in Bellow's short stories. he becomes even more mysterious. seeing "Tommy" as the pretender soul and "Velvel" as the real soul." Again the charlatan sees the truth -. He uses a "false. He says. can't see the meaning of the board-he continues to have insight." Dr. but the very fact that he is himself a pretender towards Tommy (and others) indicates the many appearances around us: True statements by a pathological liar! Tommy." he gropes toward unity. a "stranger" because he is white. And despite his dark vision of the stocks-we are told that he. But he discovers that many people in the poor Negro neighborhood consider him as a pre tender. however. itself. In "Looking for Mr. Green. like old Mr. who seems to be Mrs. Green; her husband seems to live upstairs. But he is convinced that there is a Mr. Green: it was important that there was a real Mr. Green whom they could not keep him from reaching because he seemed to come as an emissary from hostile appearances. And though the self-ridicule was slow to diminish, and his face still blazed with it, he had, nevertheless, a feeling of elation, too. "For after all," he said, "he could be found!" Before he travels to Africa, Henderson lives in a world of masquerades. Although Lily loves him, she must still lie -- she tells him in France that her mother is dead. Later she admits that now her mother is really dead. Such "con-games" -- and there are many moreirritate him. He wants only to capture deep truth. In Africa Henderson discovers at first that if one looks properly, he can see reality under appearance -- indeed there is no significant difference between the two. The body is always true. Queen Willatale informs him that he has a great "capacity" for life, indicated by [his] largeness, and especially [his] nose." Henderson kisses her middle, finding the embrace a "significant experience." This unity of body and soul is also suggested by the spiritualization of things: object-world holds spirit- world. Henderson claims that he hears the "voices of objects and colors"; he loses himself (and finds himself) in "practical tasks." (Remember the cleansing rituals in Dangling Man and The Adventures of Augie March.) He "tricks" life by disregarding dualities. These tricks continue. He speaks more and more about his physical appearance. His face, he tells us, is "always undergoing transformations," but these transformations -- these various expressions -- are real. They don't hide his spirit; they reveal it. And death, the final end, is revealed by corpses which lack transforming power. Now Dahfu joins Henderson in dialogues about truth. The same ideas are stressed as before, but they are more "substantial." When Henderson encounters the ruler of the Wairiris, he believes that his previous insights have not yet captured truth. He is assailed by many doubts. Dahfu hints at his "unrest," although his body seems at ease. He is pleasant, but he is savage. Henderson thinks: "But my purpose 243 was to see essentials, only essentials, nothing but essentials, and to guard against hallucinations. Things are not what they seem anyway." Dahfu may be a "con-man." The savage ruler offers advice: "The world of facts is real, all right, and not to be altered. The physical is all there, and it belongs to science. But then there is the nournenal department, and there we create and create and create." The imagination, he instructs Henderson, can see truth everywhere. But it can also create lies. There is, consequently, no easy solution to masquerades. They are within us at all times. But this fact is not "hopeless." Henderson sees that reality is never grasped without hallucinations. One term presupposes the other. Becoming is the vision of both terms. Dahfu continues: "Men of most powerful appetite have always been the ones to doubt reality the most." Henderson acknowledges the truth of this remark, largely because he is more overwhelmed by Dahfu's tales of the lion-father which he -- as ruler -- must capture. Is Dahfu real? he asks. His question plagues him, especially after his dark teacher says: Man "is the master of adaptations. He is the artist of suggestions." (We have come a long way from the masquerades of The Victim. Bellow seems here to be saying that masquerades exalt and debase us.) The body-spirit unity which was implied earlier is reemphasized. Dahfu says: ",Disease is a speech of the psyche." According to this aphorism, tics reveal inner disturbance; missing teeth reveal missing knowledge, and so on. Such occult knowledge makes Henderson act like a lion-if he can roar, he can be brave! So he is "the beast," assuming the voice and gestures of the lion. Dahfu even partially convinces Henderson that "inanimate objects might have a mental existence." But our rain king still doubts the truth of this astounding remark. Dahfu has probably read Wilhelm Reich. Reich insists-as do the Christian mystics, at least according to Norman O. Brown -- that body and soul are one. The body reveals inner tensions. Here are some typical remarks by Reich: "Emotion is an expressive plasmatic 244 motion." "We work with the expressive language. Only when we have felt the facial expression of the patient are we also in a position to understand it." 54 It is interesting to note that both Reich and Dahfuwho claim that there are no appearances, merely realities-are regarded as "con-men," who further their own truth by masquerade. Henderson learns, after these "conflicting truths," that reality is never grasped. The lion that Dahfu and he assume is the old king, turns out to be another "person." Thus it kills Dahfu. Hypocrisy is very close to Henderson-the consorts desire his life when he becomes king. We can consider Henderson's flight from Africa-before they kill him-as another attempt to find truth, despite "the bad stuff . . . coming back." There is no pure truth-without masqueradeas there is no eternal courts of heaven. Becoming doesn't cease-it is always "leaping, leaping, pounding, and tingling." Many critics have commented on Bellow's Jewishness. Leslie Fiedler insists that we must see it in the larger context: "the Jews for the first time [have moved] into the center of American culture." It is the final commentary on our age and on the place the Jew occupies in its imagination, that Huck Finn, when he returns to our literature not as an item of nostalgia but as an immortal archetype, returns without his overalls, his fishing pole and his freckles, as a Chicago kid making his way among small-time Jewish Machiavellians. Augie March, for him, is the "most satisfactory character every projected by a Jewish writer in America." Maxwell Geismar, on the other hand, thinks that Bellow has not faced his heritage: "Judaism in [his] work is a source of nostalgia, but also of guilt and anxiety rather than an enlarging or emancipating force." Theodore J. Ross echoes this charge when he states that Bellow by "equating" Jew and Gentile in The Victim, refuses to acknowledge basic inequalities and thus remains false to his heritage. Charles I. Glicksberg also notes Bellow's ambivalence. Bellow himself says very little about Jewishness in his essays. He notes the oddity of David Daiches being a "rabbi's boy in Edinburgh" 245 in his review of Two Worlds. He applauds Philip Roth's view of the "swamp of prosperity" that American Jews inhabit. Perhaps his most interesting remarks about his heritage are found in a review of The Adventure of Mottel the Cantor's Son. Here he writes: "The Jews of the ghetto found themselves involved in an immense joke. They are divinely designated to be great and yet they were like mice. History was something that happened to them; they did not make it." The Jews, he continues, "[decline] to suffer the penalties the world imposes on [them]." Let us look closely at these two remarks. Bellow is less interested in religion as such-he does not mention laws or rituals -- than in vision. For him this vision is ironic. Bellow asserts that the ghetto inhabitants were always aware of Janus-faced nature: they were "Chosen" and yet "Rejected" -- Chosen By God, Rejected by their society. They learned to value jokes and absurdities. Their own humor reflected the "immense joke of their existence." (In The Victim Asa hears a Jewish joke which exemplifies the beautiful absurdity of things: In a little town of Jews, afraid that the "Messiah" would come and miss them, the people build a tower and hire one of the town beggars to sit in it the whole day. "A friend of his meets this beggar and he says, 'How do you like your job, Baruch?' So he says, 'It doesn't pay much, but I think it's steady work.' ") The humor is said, expressing a longing for elevation; underneath, it asserts a glad acceptance of divine justice. We are here dealing with double irony. Bellow's view of his heritage is as ambivalent as he claims the heritage itself is. In his fiction he may use Jewish vision-or irony-but he never confronts it, at least until Herzog, except by indirection. Often he avoids it -- by masquerading it as something else. Consider Dangling Man. Joseph's predicament is treated as a "personal" situation. We are never really told that he is Jewish or that he has old-world vision. But it is possible to view him as an archetypal Jew who, like Sholom Aleichem's characters, regards existence as the work of a "Religious Humorist." (The phrase is used by Thomas Mann to describe Kafka.) 67 246 Joseph thinks of his American society as hardboiled, whereas he suffers. It rejects him because he is "different." (Or is it the other way around?) His journal becomes his sole occupation-it is his Talmud; he is a scholar who studies himself rather than divine laws. He tells us little about his appearance, but what he does indicates that he looks Jewish -- dark eyes, black hair, straight nose. When Joseph broods about existence, he is more typically Jewish. He wants the Messiah to come in the guise of a "colony of the spirit"this colony will have "covenants" forbidding "spite, bloodiness, and cruelty." It will be a blessed countryperhaps like the "Israel" of his ancestors. But like Sholom Aleichem's characters (at least according to Bellow), Joseph is trapped. Joseph's sense of the family is Jewish. Although I consider this aspect of the novel more fully in the next chapter, I want here to note its existence. Family closeness has always been important in Jewish literature-especially the father-son relationship. Joseph tries at all times to be close to his family, but he cannot achieve this little colony of the spirit. He says very little about his own parents -- they are "missing" -- but he does describe the pomposity and false guidance of his brother, Amos, who instructs him in the ways of the world. Amos is the Jew who has succumbed to the materialistic world-to exile; Joseph remains true to "the craters of the spirit," but he does this with deep skepticism. Joseph, unlike the ghetto inhabitants, has lost his faith in God. He says at one point: "No, not God, not any divinity. That was anterior, not of my own deriving. I was not so full of pride that I could not accept the existence of something greater than myself." Joseph wants to believe in divinity, but he is so trapped that he can only see it dimly -- in a Haydn divertimento. What would his grandfather think of this? Joseph looks for messages not in the Old Testament but in Goethe, Walden, Jacob Boehme, Marx, and his own journal. The hints of Jewishness I have cited-the "alienation," the "Messianic vision," the almost-suffocating family ties, the physical appearance- are less significant than the Jewish humor-sad and hard-pervading the novel. Perhaps this example will suffice: Joseph thinks of his 247 grandfather's photograph, which shows an old man of faith, "his eyes staring and his clothing sbroudlike." He remembers that at fourteen he suddenly saw that he would resemble him: "I was upright on my grandfather's bones and the bones of those before him in a temporary loan." Joseph longs for the old faith-the "real Jew" -- at the same time that he fears it. When he grows up he meets the "others" who -like Mr. Harscha, the German-stare at him. They also chart resemblances. Thus the grandfather's head -- "his streaming beard yellow, sulphurous" -- hangs over Joseph, threatening to "devour" him. This example not only holds the Jewish themes-it gives us a clue to Bellow's tensions about his heritage. The Victim brings these tensions to the surface. Here Bellow emphasizes the various problems he avoided in his first novel. Thus in the first few pages Asa knows that no matter what his beliefs are-is he a believer in God? -- he is a Jew to the others. Mr. Beard claims that he is "like the rest of his brethren." Whether he likes it or not, he joins his fellow "victims." The facts that his wife is named Mary and his sister-in-law is Italian no longer matter. There is no real assimilation. He is trapped in his heritage. Allbee constantly reminds him of this doom. You Jews aren't violent, he says, but he doesn't use the word "Jew." He knows that Asa will be more upset by guilt-by betrayal-than by anything else. (The Jew, with his belief in colonies of the spirit, his desire to help victims, will always blame himself.) He gives him something to brood about by suggesting that he has victimized a Gentile. Mr. Geismar is surely correct in indicating that Allbee is more Jewish than Asa-more aware of victimization, of blame. 68 He even "delights" .in old-world customs, festivals, songs etc., constantly referring to them. Asa discovers his Jewishness, enacting Sartre's definition in Anti- Semite and jew: What is it, then, that serves to keep a semblance of unity in the Jewish community? To reply to this question, we must come back to the idea of situation. It is neither their past, their religion, nor their soil that unites the sons of Israel. If they have a common bond, if all of them deserve the name of Jew, it is because they have in common the 248 Now we can see one reason for Bellow's ambivalence towards his own Jewishness: like Asa. for example. unintentional. he seems to resent enacting a role thrust upon him. to quote Allbee.especially in the early chapters-we don't completely understand the nature of Jewishness. Bellow does not offer a comforting message in The Victim. What is ironic is this: New York- the place of aliena tion-is. that is. suffers more. he has "escaped" from them by loving the world." Bellow suggests that once a Jew is so reminded-can he remind himself? -. When Allbee suffers. foods. He has written a plea for assimilation. By showing that Allbee and Asa are exactly human.situation of a Jew. then of the community. Things seem to be "exactly human. Because Asa has no real belief in God. he must assert that his present position is the result of chance: "And what more was there for him to say than that his part in it was accidental? At worst an accident." He thrusts responsibility onto fate. Asa. He remembers the "old" ways of his parents-of the Jewish past-only after he is placed into his situation. they live in a community that takes them for Jews. he is more alone." All men react as he does when placed in such a situation-there are no values in a type-be it Jew or Gentile. this means that everybody is Jewish (or that nobody is). he acts in the way his countrymen have always acted. he feels more guilt. But he has not solved the tensions of being a Jew. he resembles Asa. feeling relieved in being helpless and dumb. ate bread 249 . Bellow finds it difficult to grow within "anterior" limits.he assumes a historic role. and proverbs -. The Adventures of Augie March continues this escapist pattern. a "very Jewish city. Perhaps Bellow implies that the March family merely accepts historical typecasting-it becomes another masquerade for them. Being a Jew means for him that he is an "ideal construction" -. Only gradually does he accept universal order-but he doesn't see it as divinely ordained. Here is Grandma Lausch: "But she never went to the synagogue. he implies that Jewishness is less significant than universal truth.if not of the Lord. Although we get a close view of Jewish customs. he looks at the world with Jewish irony. a skeptic. but in this "carefree" world he simply admits: "I never had any special grief from it. stoned. when the German skeptic rode through the streets.on Passover." even by the great men themselves. needs no more explanation. after all. to enrage the villager by his open violation of the Law. a few Jews of Chelm would lie down beneath 250 ." We would expect Augie to resemble Asa Leventhal. Almost any passage indicates his skeptical admiration of greatness. He even laughs at Anna Coblin's orthodox beliefs: she "had the will of a martyr to carry a mangled head in Paradise till doomsday.) When he thinks of Einhorn. who would deliberately ride in his coach each Sabbath." Despite the fact that Augie doesn't care about antisemitism or orthodox rituals. Think of Augie's attitudes toward Einhorn (and the other great men) in relation to the following "Tale of Chelm": In Chelm there once arrived a rich German Jew. sent Mama to the pork butcher where meat was cheaper. and Ulysses. and beat up for Christ-killers. Endurance and wisdom are not accepted as solemn truths-they are viewed as "cheap items." directing Augie to the "great eternal things. articled. being by and large too larky and boisterous to take it to heart. even Georgie. than other juvenile delinquency. or brooded. bitten. loved canned lobster and other forbidden food. whether we liked it or not to this mysterious trade. They thought and thought and decided that every Sabbath. Einhorn is great because he is able to endure the onslaughts of existence -. achieves greatness by) means of trickery. for example. But Augie knows that even endurance can be laughed at: Einhorn. he continues." But is she Jewish? Why is she Jewish? Bellow suggests that the family knows that it is "different" only when the "others" say so: "And sometimes we were chased. he says that he "isn't kidding" as he enters him in the list of great men-along wit Caesar. Machiavelli. in the suffering mothers' band led by Eve and Hannah." She is "silly. (Rember Bellow's remarks about the immense joke. she was not an atheist and free-thinker. So Chelm sought ways to teach the rich skeptic a lesson. all of us." Anti-sernitism.endurance is a quality always admired by Jews living in exile. ") The Adventures of Augie March.the wheels of his coach.saintly. He is a "trader dealing in air. One extreme variation is the wise or sainted fool who has often given up the householder's struggle for dignity and thereby acquired the wry perspective of the man on the outside." 73 The following description of the "central figure of Yiddish literature" helps us to see Bellow's hero in an old-world way: From this central figure of Yiddish literature -." He is an "anti-hero. It is dangerous to call it either an American novel or a Jewish one.how to live in a new world. he is for his brother. folksy way.) It is. George resembles the child of Yiddish literature: "deprived. disregarding the tensions of The Victim. He is for the poor versus the silly materialist. so that it would turn over and he would break his ribs. (Perhaps this explains Leslie Fiedler's high regard for it.one might call him the Representative Man of the shtetl -there emerges a number of significant variations and offshoots. his blind mother. hopeless in this world because so profoundly committed to the other." as well as foolish -. Augie wants only to go his own erratic way." facing life with an "ironic shrug. 251 . The tale suggests that suffering itself can be mocked. the right way to approach God-at the same time that it is infused with Jewish humor and legend. paradoxically. yet infinitely loved. Realizing that he cannot achieve greatness for himself. then. Here too he follows his Jewish countrymen. The little man! How fitting the phrase is! Augie resembles the Jewish folk- character who is "long-suffering." dos kleine menschele. George (the imbecile). escapes from confronting many problems Jews must face -. It is a strange mixture-perhaps more than any other of Bellow's novels-because it sees Jewishness in a nostalgic. The great sense of the "sanctity of the insulted and the iniured" 75 is always present in Augie's remarks. (Indeed. unprovincial as it exalts provincial feelings." Although I have claimed that Bellow doesn't explain Augie's passivity in psychological terms. persistent. lovingly ironic. and all the crippled. Another is the ecstatic wanderer. he does suggest that his hero is "archetypal. He is "inauthentic.Seize the Day is a much more Jewish work. if such a phrase has any meaning. and with it his father's opinion of him. Although he answers that he hasn't." "Wilky. Adler being in his mind the title of the species. unfortunately." and "Velvel. in part. But Wilky was his inescapable self. he resembles the suffering ghetto inhabitants. his three selves: "Tommy. he knew it was. he expresses his longing to pray for his dead mother. He uses the same devices as before. (He realizes that he doesn't know the 252 . discovers that he has no real talent and turns to selling products.the good-looking actor who. Wilky is the bleak. the Messianic vision. Seize the Day asks as does The Victim: What is a Jew? Why is someone a Jew? Tommy Wilhelm is torn by. Old Rappaport asks him at one point whether he has reserved a seat in the synagogue for Yom Kippur. is that Bellow uses three names to symbolize the Jew -. the sanc tity of the insulted and injured. He had never. . Wilky knows that he looks like his ancestors-that he has some of their beliefs in the family sense. He remembers that his grandfather called him Velvel. When Wilhelm prays. however. It was.freedom and determinism: Wilhelm had always had a great longing to be Tommy.Tommy (the assimilationist). it suggests that Bellow removes his rose-colored glasses and scrutinizes the tensions of Jewish life. finding "power and glory" in rituals. "Wilky" is the name his father calls him-his real name-to control him. Velvel represents the cozy affection of his heritage. . More and more he thinks in Jewish terms." Bellow reminds us that these names represent two conflicting aspects of Wilhelm's personality -. . But even Wilky may not be his true soul. Wilhelm chooses to be Velvel. succeeded in feeling like Tommy and in his soul had always remained Wilky. but he is concerned. with probing the identity of the Jew in America. his bid for liberty. then. "inescapable self. Tommy the freedom of the person. What is interesting. He had cast off his father's name. Wilky (the inescapable heritage)." Tommy is his desired American self -." running away from the old- world. and Velvel (the loved heritage). The following statements hold not only for Rosenfeld but for Bellow in Henderson the Rain King: Rosenfeld was obsessed for many years by the familiar Jewish theme of salvation -. but its message in effect is an escapist one. The surprising thing in Bellow's fiction is that he does not approach his Jewishness in any consistent way. it is his most forceful acceptance of his heritage-or most loving acceptance.or what Harold Rosenberg.) At last he thinks of the Hebrew memorial service-he begins to resemble his grandfather. Bellow. Rosenfeld saw the way out of the underground not through Jewish faith in another." Naturalist that he was. We would expect Bellow's progress to offer another view of the Jewish theme in his Henderson the Rain King." Here he identifies not only with the corpse but with all his countrymen.Hebrew words. Mother is "reformed. through the flesh rather than through religious experience. seems to accept Reichianism which as Theodore Solotaroff writes. Rosenfeld's Reichianism. . resembles Hassidism. However. of course. where a Jewish ceremony is in progress: "Men in formal clothes and black homburgs strode softly back and forth on the cork floor . like his friend Isaac Rosenfeld. He even has a dispute with a Jewish friend-which compels him out of crazy spite to start raising pigs. The white of the stained glass was like mother-of-pearl. has called "the Jewish vertigo. He tried to bridge the gap between alienation and connection. Father has no religion. and he found his mentor in Wilhelm Reich. but through the satisfaction of his natural desires. In the family structure Grandfather is orthodox. another acceptance. The only Jewish vision in Henderson the Rain King is indirect -- perhaps it lies hidden in the flaming love expressed throughout the novel. redemptive place. But Henderson is Gentile. I assume that his name is Velvel when he cries. He cleanses himself. Seize the Day confronts it more than does The Adventures of Augie March. in a brilliant reading of Jewish character." and he is ambivalent. the blue of the Star of David like velvet ribbon. And this resemblance is strengthened when he stumbles into a funeral parlor. . under the 253 . But he was a mystic for all that-and a Jewish one. depression and joy. The Victim is. secularism and transcendence. he expands his Jewishness until it reminds us of Malamud's remark: "All men are Jews. often reads much like Hasidism. He has come a long way from Asa's victimization." he writes at one point in his journal." their interaction produces great tensions not only in the characters but in the novels themselves. The final effect. "even the beloved partner's love for another. Masquerades are part of Jewishness. eternity fights moha and madness.his heritage? Bellow's themes are. They interact subtly. not so distinct as I have made them.inevitable conditioning of his character. despite Bellow's "larky" tone in The Adventures of Augie March and Henderson the Rain King. For then we see the world spelled out in letters of flame. 254 ." Is such a remark an escape from -. of course. is that of powerful ambivalence.or a confrontation of -. Although they are "one. "To love all love." What irony! Bellow uses a wealthy Protestant to express a boundless love for the universe. In the wilds of Africa he (as his hero) feels no longer trapped in assuming an historical or cultural role. Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most prolific and popular writers of the twentieth century. Wampeters. In addition. Sr. Foma. Although his parents were third-generation Americans. Vonnegut’s father attended school in Germany. In countless interviews he has examined the major influences that shaped his life and career.. he has been a public figure.. speaking out on issues ranging from politics to censorship. Palm Sunday. His career has spanned fifty years and brought him prestigious awards and honorary degrees from many universities. Indiana. they maintained close ties to Germany until the outbreak of the First World War. even to those who have never read his books or heard him give a commencement address. 1922. In Indianapolis they were prominent members of the 255 . devouring his books one after another and becoming curious about the man who wrote them. His face has become familiar. from his appearances in movies and television advertisements. three collections of shorter works. Vonnegut has provided plenty of clues about the connection between his life and work by weaving autobiographical details into his fiction and discussing the process of writing novels in the novels themselves. Readers often become “addicted” to Vonnegut.&Granfalloons. The coincidence is as significant as any that Vonnegut ever contrived in his fiction. and Edith Lieber Vonnegut in Indianapolis. This chapter will draw on interviews and Von negut’s own autobiographical essays to provide a brief overview of his life and explore the connections between his experiences and his writing. Since the late 1960s. and before the war they made frequent trips to Europe. an impressive and ever growing list of academic studies suggests that his reputation as one of the most important American novelists of the twentieth century is secure. Although his novels have sometimes come under savage attack from professional critics. contain many interesting and revealing anecdotes that help readers understand the man behind the novels. the fourth anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. from science and technology to the role of the artist in modern society. Kurt Vonnegut. was born to Kurt Vonnegut. Both of his parents were fluent in German. Jr. on November 11. and Fates Worse than Death. characters suffer from a lack of connection to a vital culture and community. a theater. Jr. explores the dehumanizing effects of a lack of 256 . This decision left Vonnegut feeling “ignorant and rootless. reflecting Vonnegut’s relationship with his own father. Before World War I. music. Player Piano. Both of his parents were deeply saddened by the loss of the rich cultural heritage that had sustained them before the war. He also designed the telephone company’s branch offices. During the 1920s Vonnegut’s father designed several important buildings. the Great Depression of the 1930s put a halt to building. and young Kurt sometimes rode with him to check the progress of buildings around the state (Allen. However.. and the Indiana headquarters of the Bell Telephone Company. nor did they introduce him to “the literature or the music or the oral family histories which my ancestors had loved” (Palm Sunday 20). but when the United States entered the war. including Das Deutsch Haus. the Liebers. Sr. His first novel.” it is included in the National Register of Historic Places. and almost overnight. His father was the son of a prominent architect who designed impressive buildings that still stand. Vonnegut’s parents lived in a world of German literature. Now known as “The Atheneum. the center for German culture in Indianapolis. Vonnegut’s mother Edith was born into one of the wealthiest families in town. who owned a successful brewery.” and throughout his work. German Americans were called upon to give up their ties to Germany in order to prove their patriotism. Although Kurt. The fathers depicted in Vonnegut’s novels are all distant and uninvolved with their children’s lives.. he regrets that his father’s retreat left “very little for a son to relate to” (Allen.German-American professional and artistic elite. Although his parents continued to speak German to each other at home. had no work from 1929 to 1940. The United States allied itself with Britain against Germany. Conversations 227). and Kurt. they never taught the language to Kurt. and tradition. He retreated from life and became “a dreamy artist” (Allen. Conversations 227–28). defends his father’s “decision to disengage” from a world that he found brutal and ugly.. this world was destroyed. Conversations 243). including a large department store. Jr. all aspects of German culture were regarded with suspicion. Edith Vonnegut had voiced her strong opposition to the war. “Late at night. Conversations 270). Although the Vonnegut family never suffered the severe hardships that plagued many families during the Depression. while Kurt was home on leave from the army before being shipped overseas. As he pointed out in an interview. they were no longer wealthy. and never with guests present. Taken together. Kurt.. For a while she tried writing short stories for popular magazines and dreamed of moving to Cape Cod. Howard Campbell’s mother is morbid and crazy before she drops out of her son’s life entirely. was taken out of private school and placed in Public School #43. these fictional mothers reflect the sadness. but her stories were rejected. commits suicide by swallowing Drano. Although she was never diagnosed or treated. had to compete for attention. and guilt that Kurt Vonnegut has struggled with since his mother’s suicide. His brother Bernard was nine years older and a scientist. He has tried to cope with her legacy in his life as well. and she became increasingly bitter and abusive.. She ended her own life with an overdose of sleeping pills on Mother’s Day in 1944. “It’s probably very common for sons to try to make their mothers’ impossible dreams come true” (Allen. She became depressed and withdrew from her children’s lives. who resembles Edith Vonnegut in several ways. Conversations 178). she expressed hatred for Father as corrosive as hydrofluoric acid” (Fates Worse than Death 28). anger. and in 1930. Although Vonnegut considers this a positive development that brought him into contact with “interesting” people.meaningful work—observing his father’s deepening depression during the 1930s may have suggested this theme. Celia Hoover. his mother never recovered from the loss of the family fortune (Allen. Jr. In Vonnegut’s fiction. mothers are either distant or absent. and the timing of her suicide must have burdened her son with an extra share of guilt. and always in the privacy of our own home. his 257 . Eliot Rosewater feels responsible for killing his mother in a sailing accident. Kurt. her son is convinced that she suffered from mental illness. fulfilling her unrealized dreams by becoming a successful short-story writer and living on Cape Cod. As the youngest of three children. Jr. He soon discovered that being funny was a sure way to be noticed. He describes his father’s younger brother Alex as “responsive and amusing and generous with me. Vonnegut describes his novels as “mosaics made up of a whole bunch of tiny chips. Ida Young. Conversations 69). since it made low comedy of the empty graces and aggressively useless possessions which my parents. But young Kurt was determined to join the conversation.. the Vonneguts’ African American cook and housekeeper during Kurt’s first ten years. Everyone does. meant to regain some day” (Palm Sunday 54). Young also nurtured Vonnegut’s 258 .. Encouraged by his success at making jokes.. Rosewater.. and he introduced young Kurt to Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class.. So she was as great an influence on me as anybody” (Allen. emulating their techniques and their timing. and I must have made accidental jokes at first. Uncle Alex was a socialist. to engage in give and take. and especially my mother. and each chip is a joke” (Allen. The influence of Veblen’s harsh critique of the idle rich is obvious in most of Vonnegut’s work. “they had really big time stuff to argue about” (Allen. Kurt studied the radio comedians who were so popular during the 1930s. He adds that she “gave me decent moral instruction and was exceedingly nice to me. Conversations 245). Conversations 245). “I wanted to talk in order to learn how to do it. Ms. Although his parents were distant. Mr. Vonnegut gives Ida Young most of the credit for raising him and describes her as “humane and wise” (Allen. there were two adults who were close to Vonnegut in his childhood and helped shape his character. Even the most despicable characters in Vonnegut’s novels are capable of arousing the reader’s sympathy because they are presented as vulnerable human beings struggling to cope in a difficult world. His ability to make jokes eventually contributed to his success as a writer. Conversations 91). small as I was” (Allen. During the 1930s.sister Alice was five years older and a sculptress. Kurt “loved it. Along with his architect father. Conversations 69). but especially in God Bless You.And I understood the terms under which I could buy my way into the conversations. was also an important influence on him..my ideal grown-up friend” (Palm Sunday 53). Foma&Granfalloons 260). A strong sense of audience has shaped Vonnegut’s writing style.. and he has continued this practice in his novels. Vonnegut discovered his talent for writing. “The compassionate. In my case it was writing” (Wampeters. but when Vonnegut attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in the 1930s he worked on a daily paper.” Most high schools are lucky to produce a student newspaper several times a year. forgiving aspects of my beliefs came from Ida Young. carefully punctuated. a student-run newspaper. Conversations 48). he wanted to stay in Indianapolis and become a reporter for a local paper. “I started out writing for a large audience. Vonnegut had polished his prose style. but his father insisted that he go to college and study chemistry..capacity for sympathy.. Conversations 114). but he was flunking 259 . I caught a lot of shit in twenty-four hours” (260). When Vonnegut finished high school. Vonnegut wrote three columns a week that he describes as “impudent editorializing. Working first as a reporter. in 1940 as a biochemistry major. and if he hopes to hold their interest. Writing for a daily student newspaper made Vonnegut aware of his audience at an age when most people are writing only for their teachers. He is aware that most people are not good readers. And if I did a lousy job. Kurt began his freshman year at Cornell University in Ithaca. the Shortridge Echo. “I’ve always had to have an ax to grind in order to write” (Allen. Although by then his older brother Bernard was well on his way to a promising career as a scientist. As managing editor of the Sun. Vonnegut enjoyed the opportunity to express his opinions in an amusing way in his editorials. “I avoid sentences where the reader could get lost…. and then as a columnist and editor. After three years at Cornell.college-humor sort of stuff” (Allen. Kurt soon realized that he had little scientific ability. He spent most of his college years writing for the Cornell Daily Sun. New York. Conversations 114). he needs to write in a simple style with short sentences and paragraphs. with lots of white space” (Allen. “Each person has something he can do easily and can’t imagine why everybody else is having so much trouble doing it. I have made my books easy to read. he knew a few words from listening to his parents. Conversations 181). and to assess technology’s impact on society. He and his fellow prisoners were quartered in a slaughterhouse and put to work in a factory making malt syrup as a vitamin supplement for pregnant 260 . a beautiful city that had so far been spared by the Allied bombing. Vonnegut was impressed by the ornate buildings and the city’s harmonious design. He even adopted a modified “scientific” approach to his writing. He learned enough about science to discuss it intelligently. These mind experiments challenge readers to think more deeply about the world around them and their place in it. to admire the work of scientists.” Vonnegut found the question “ignorant and comical. the 240 mm howitzer.most of his science classes. because “nobody was very sure” about what battalion scouts were supposed to do (Palm Sunday 76). Vonnegut received no infantry training. he was transferred to the 106th Infantry Division as a battalion scout. He was trained to fire the army’s largest piece of field artillery. his scientific training proved valuable to his career as a novelist. As a prisoner of war. But before he was shipped overseas. Although he never received a degree from Cornell. They asked him if he was of German heritage and then wanted to know why he was fighting against his “brothers. Although he could not speak German well. Vonnegut was captured by the Germans. When he found himself at the front. the largest American defeat of the Second World War. for all they meant to me” (78– 79). Vonnegut was shipped to Dresden. As the son and grandson of architects. Vonnegut was “delighted to join the Army and go to war” (Allen. an enormous cannon that shot a 300-pound shell. Vonnegut does the same thing in his fiction by creating unlikely situations to see what they reveal about human nature. Because he was about to flunk out of Cornell in his junior year. and he tried to speak to his captors. My parents had separated me so thoroughly from my Germanic past that my captors might as well have been Bolivians or Tibetans. he “imitated various war movies [he] had seen” (77). Vonnegut points out that scientists like his brother Bernard are always asking “what if” questions and then designing experiments to answer them. During the Battle of the Bulge. a company that supplied local news stories to the Chicago newspapers and the national wire services. This incident later became the basis for one of Vonnegut’s first published stories. Vonnegut’s wartime experiences provided the basis for his most famous and important novel. Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut later described the story as “sickeningly slick” and lamented. Vonnegut returned briefly to Indianapolis and married his high-school sweetheart. It was the largest massacre in European history. When they emerged a few hours later. so its residents believed that they would not be bombed.” which appeared in the Ladies Home Journal and was later included in a collection of Vonnegut’s stories. and 135. she was engaged to another man. and Dresdeners retreated to their cellars. British and American planes dropped thousands of incendiary devices on Dresden and created a firestorm that destroyed the entire city and suffocated the Dresdeners in their cellars. Afterward. However. meaning there were no war industries or large troop concentrations there. which he describes as the study of “every object and idea which has been 261 . Vonnegut and the other prisoners descended to an underground meat locker.” excavating the cellars of Dresden to remove the dead and bring them to the city’s parks where enormous funeral pyres burned the bodies to prevent the spread of disease. After the war.women. Welcome to the Monkey House. Dresden was considered an “open” city. but Vonnegut persuaded her to go for a walk with him and then convinced her to marry him instead. 1945. Vonnegut enjoyed his studies. Vonnegut was put to work as a “corpse miner. Jane Marie Cox. In December. the beautiful city of Dresden had been reduced to a pile of smoking rubble. He also began studying for a master’s degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago. “Shame. 1945. When he first got home. on the night of February 13. on September 1. where the carcasses of animals hung in the cool air. He specialized in cultural anthropology. For the first time since high school.000 people were dead. Vonnegut and his fellow prisoners survived because they were far enough under ground that the air was not sucked out of their shelter by the firestorm. to have lived scenes from a woman’s magazine” (Welcome to the Monkey House xv). “Long Walk to Forever. the Vonneguts moved to Chicago where Kurt worked as a police reporter for the Chicago City News Bureau. the air raid sirens wailed. shame. a professor read Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle and showed it to his colleagues in anthropology. Cat’s Cradle is also based on 262 . “Report on the Barnhouse Effect.” later became a regular feature of his public lectures. and he needed to find work to support his wife and his young son Mark. In 1947 Vonnegut was broke. He began writing short stories at night. Although he found his studies interesting. who voted to accept it as Vonnegut’s master’s thesis. The rejected thesis. “Fluctuations Between Good and Evil in Simple Tales. he hated his job and felt out of place at GE. and they became the focus of his first novel. In Schenectady he was surrounded by engineers and machinery. Writing it helped Vonnegut understand some simple but important truths about storytelling that he was soon to put to good use. His choice of anthropology reveals that he was still under the influence of his father’s advice to study a science. He was awarded a Master of Arts degree in anthropology by the University of Chicago in 1971. and after a few rejections. Cultural anthropology showed Vonnegut that people in other parts of the world had worked out patterns for living that were quite different from anything he had been exposed to in his first twenty-three years of life. Twenty-five years later. Vonnegut was assigned to write articles about the research being done in GE’s labs. he sold his first story.” to Collier’s for $750. New York. and he eventually put his new knowledge to good use in his novels. and he decided to quit his job to write full time. Vonnegut regards the four years he spent at GE as a period of apprenticeship. Although he found the company of the scientists interesting. he had only a high school diploma. the anthropology department rejected his master’s thesis. which was the equivalent of six weeks’ pay at GE. Player Piano. For Vonnegut. anthropology was “a science that was mostly poetry” (90). By now his older brother Bernard was working in General Electric’s research laboratories in Schenectady. Because he had some training in science. during which he received instruction in the craft of writing stories from the magazine editors who purchased his work. and a summary of it was finally published in Palm Sunday (1981). and he got Kurt a job in public relations.shaped by men and women and children” (Palm Sunday 222). even as he gained a clearer idea of his real talents. His next story brought him $950. and he left Chicago without a degree in 1947. Although Vonnegut has not said much about his relationship with his sister. “I. and others seem to trust it most too. was killed in a train wreck on the way to visit her in the hospital. He laments the loss of the city’s distinctive culture. which was published in 1952. Although Indianapolis is mentioned in all of Vonnegut’s novels. worked for an industrial advertising agency. and opened the second Saab automobile dealership in the United States. Vonnegut’s beloved sister Alice died of cancer. In 1957 Vonnegut’s father died alone in a small cottage in the woods of southern Indiana. Massachusetts. a scenic coastal town on Cape Cod.. The day before she died. After quitting his job at GE in 1951. Yet the city of his youth remains an important influence on Vonnegut’s writing. had never been close. “I myself find that I trust my own writing most. her husband. since his father’s death he has returned to his hometown only for funerals and an occasional speaking engagement. She was the secret of my 263 . Less than a year after his father’s death.. As his family continued to grow with the births of Edith in 1951 and Nanette in 1955.. Massachusetts.never told her so. complaining that now it is no more than “an interchangeable part in the American machine” (Slapstick 8). when I sound like a person from Indianapolis. He taught English for one year at the Hopefield School in nearby Sandwich. Vonnegut has written about the role of science and technology in the modern world. Vonnegut needed to supplement the income he received from his stories. There he continued to write short stories to pay the bills as he worked on his novel Player Piano. his death marked a decisive severing of Vonnegut’s Indiana roots. James Carmalt Adams. and throughout his career. Although he and Kurt. which is what I am” (Palm Sunday 70). In the late 1950s he even created a large metal sculpture that was on display in the lobby of a hotel at Logan airport in Boston for over ten years (Todd 17). she was certainly an important influence on his life and work.Vonnegut’s experiences at GE. leaving behind four young boys. She was the secret of whatever artistic unity I had ever achieved. Vonnegut moved to West Barnstable. Jr. but she was the person I had always written for. I wasn’t on there. Kilgore Trout. Steven. and by 1965. Mother Night. they soon went out of print.. the magazines that Vonnegut relied on to buy his stories were going out of business. and Kurt was faced with the dual challenge of providing for them and guiding them through their teenage years in the 1960s.” Vonnegut recalls. but paperback originals are rarely reviewed and are sold mostly in bus stations and drug stores. were all published first in paperback. When his novels began to appear in hardcover. After her death. who would give him a $3. Rosewater received favorable reviews. he and his wife Jane adopted her three oldest boys. so they did little to enhance Vonnegut’s reputation as a writer. creative relationship that Vonnegut enjoyed with his sister. The Sirens of Titan. but it was published in hardcover in 1963. Mr. Now there were six children between the ages of nine and fourteen in the Vonnegut household on Cape Cod. the prolific science fiction writer whose novels can be found only in pornographic bookstores.” suggesting the close. a collection of stories.[and] it made me feel subhuman” (Allen. and Kurt Adams. Unfortunately. He was offered a teaching position at the prestigious 264 . Vonnegut felt that his work was being ignored. Vonnegut was having difficulty supporting his large family. James.000 advance based on an outline and a first chapter. The money enabled him to feed his large family. Vonnegut received the critical recognition he desired. so he began selling his novels to paperback publishers. Vonnegut’s frustration with being relegated to the “sleazo” world of paperback originals is reflected in one of his most memorable characters. The “monsters” are described as “specialized halves of a single brain. In spite of the fact that both Cat’s Cradle and God Bless You. and Canary in a Cathouse.technique” (Slapstick 16–17). His novel Slapstick “depicts myself and my beautiful sister as monsters” whose parents have abandoned them in a house full of books (20). Esquire published a list of the American literary world back then and it guaranteed that every living author of the slightest merit was on there somewhere. Before the success of Cat’s Cradle. Conversations 107). but he still struggled to make ends meet. “Cat’s Cradle was written with that market in mind. “I wasn’t even getting reviewed.. nor were his fellow prisoners. Published at the height of the Vietnam War. and he found the experience exhilarating yet intimidating. Vonnegut became a hero of the anti-war movement. The Germans Vonnegut met were not eager to recall their wartime experiences. He was invited to speak at rallies. Vonnegut was struggling to write about his wartime experiences in Dresden. so he moved his family to Iowa City for two years between 1965 and 1967. and to give commencement addresses at colleges all over the country. It reminded Vonnegut of Dayton. so he went on a crash course in reading. He felt he had to do it. His training as a journalist had taught him to keep himself out of his writing as much as possible. The novel was a bestseller. which forced him to think more deeply about his own creative process. Most found they could recall little about the period. During these years. it demonstrated that aerial bombardment is a purposeless slaughter of innocents with no military justification. he was expected to talk about writing. Only after years of struggle and many abandoned drafts did he finally succeed in completing Slaughterhouse-Five. and it brought Vonnegut financial security and praise from the critics. and he found it helpful to be able to discuss his work with other writers. he had not read many of the great novels that his new colleagues were fond of discussing. Because his education was in science.University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He wrote an autobiographical introduction to the hardcover reissue of Mother Night and began to write first-person accounts of his wartime experiences for Slaughterhouse-Five. signaling a new direction in his work. For the first time in his life. and Vonnegut faced the same problem when he sat down to write a book about Dresden. but he did not know how. Vonnegut was part of a community of writers. Of course. In 1967 Vonnegut was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship to travel to Dresden to do research for Slaughterhouse-Five. the city bore no resemblance to the architectural treasure that it had been before the war. Ohio. 265 . to teach at Harvard. For the first time in his life. but the fiction writers at Iowa told him that this rule does not apply to fiction. Vonnegut found this advice liberating. Yet he was deeply disappointed with his progress on his next novel.” Vonnegut and his wife Jane also fought about religion. In 1972 Universal Pictures released a film adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five that Vonnegut called “flawless” (Between Time and Timbuktu xv). He abandoned it for a while and began to think seriously of a new career as a playwright. where he was the Distinguished Professor of English Prose. although he and Jane remained friends until the end of her life. Hobart and William College. He taught at Harvard and at City University of New York. unavoidable accident that we were ill-equipped to understand” (Palm Sunday 172). in spite of mixed reviews. critics viciously attacked it. he did not know what to do next. and this meant that “[w]e were both going to have to find other sorts of seemingly important work to do. and 266 . and he received honorary degrees from Indiana University. Slaughterhouse-Five was a book that he felt compelled to write. but after it was finished. 1970. Vonnegut thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with the actors. Vonnegut described the break-up as a “terrible.” he explained to an interviewer in 1971 (Todd 17). Wanda June opened at the Theatre de Lys in New York on October 7. Breakfast of Champions. his twenty-five-year marriage was falling apart. Staging plays gave him a chance to join an interesting community and leave behind the loneliness of the solitary writer. The combination of financial security and emotional distress took a toll on Vonnegut’s writing. Throughout the 1970s. “I am in the dangerous position now where I can sell anything I write. and ran until March 14. When Breakfast of Champions appeared in 1973. She was becoming a born-again Christian. a life-long atheist. He was elected vice president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Happy Birthday. and Vonnegut. “I write for the stage in order to get to know more people and to become intimately related to them” (Allen. Yet in spite of his growing fame. Five of their six children were grown and out on their own. but he soon realized that his true talent was for writing fiction. Vonnegut received many honors and awards. and Bennington College. Conversations 71). So in 1971 he left their home on Cape Cod and moved to New York City. found this “painful” (175).At the same time. among others. Vonnegut was facing an artistic crisis. In the early 1970s. These talks helped him put an end to the “periodic blowups” that had afflicted him since childhood (Wampeters. Two novels that he published in the 1980s. since I had done hack writing so cheerfully for vulgar magazines” (93–94). Vonnegut has had less to say about his personal life in the last twenty years. “All of a sudden critics wanted me squashed like a bug” (Palm Sunday 93).Vonnegut’s reputation continued to slide with the publication of Slapstick in 1976. Although he always felt like an outsider. as many of his critics had. Although Mark recovered and wrote a book about the experience. a photojournalist who was working on a series about writers at work. Vonnegut also considers his writing important therapy. they can treat their neuroses every day” (Abel A11). his illness was deeply troubling and contributed to Vonnegut’s own chronic depression. a prescription anti-depressant. For a while he took Ritalin. Lawrence Broer has argued convincingly that in his novels of the seventies and eighties. He had not attended a prestigious East Coast prep school and gone on to study literature at an Ivy League college. The Eden Express. he stopped taking it and began having weekly talks with a psychologist. Vonnegut attempted to come to terms with the psychic pain that his parents had inflicted on him as a child. Vonnegut met Jill Krementz. but he seems pleased to be a grandfather and to have all of his books in print. They lived together in New York and were married in 1979. and was amazed that a little pill could do so much to change his mood. have helped to 267 . “The hidden complaint was that I was barbarous. In the mid-seventies. Critics were not content to say that these were bad books. They felt compelled to attack the author and suggest that he had no business writing at all. Vonnegut had never been part of the literary establishment. and Vonnegut had to put him in an institution. Galapagos and Bluebeard. His son Mark suffered a mental breakdown in 1972. “Writers are very lucky people. Foma&Granfalloons 253). the interviews he gave in the 1970s reveal that he was deeply hurt by the personal nature of the critics’ attacks. The seventies were also a difficult decade in Vonnegut’s personal life. that I was no gentleman. that I wrote without having made a systematic study of the great literature. In a public lecture he confessed his lust for an Indian woman and wondered aloud if she soaks the jewel she wears on her forehead at night. The remark prompted an angry editorial in the school newspaper. intended to make people think more deeply about who they are and how they see the world. that’s the price of my freedom. While in Northampton he has given poetry readings. In 1999 he insisted that he still wants his gravestone carved with the words that appealed to Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five: “Everything was beautiful. as he has since the age of fourteen. By now Vonnegut is used to such criticism. especially when he suspects that people are in danger of taking themselves too seriously. He still believes that laughter is the best response to a world filled with pain and horror. done some stand-up comedy. claiming that students “would have walked out on anyone else who uttered the same things” (quoted in Abel A11). “I’ll say whatever I want. like a set of dentures. Recently he completed a year as writer-in-residence at Smith College in Northampton.” but he insists that we must be able to speak frankly about sensitive subjects without becoming too afraid that we will offend someone else in the process. The working title for his novel-in-progress is If God Were Alive Today. “They promised to kill me on the package. Vonnegut still loves to stir up controversy. He still chain-smokes Pall Mall cigarettes. and nothing hurt. and they haven’t done it yet” (Abel A11). If it hurts someone’s feelings. making his face familiar to a whole new generation of readers. he feels that he “got off so light” (Reed&Leeds ix). too bad! That’s the way it goes” (Abel A11). He knows full well that his statement is not “politically correct. Vonnegut is still writing full time and seeking other outlets for his creativity. and he laughs it off easily.” 268 . As he approaches his eightieth birthday. Vonnegut played himself in the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to School. Massachusetts. sung with a band he called “Special K and his Crew” and presented his visual art in a local gallery. In spite of all he has been through.restore his reputation as a major writer. but now he is contemplating a lawsuit against the tobacco companies. The remark is another Vonnegut mind experiment. Carson McCullers Carson McCullers is quite possibly the most controversial living American writer. which. McCullers is both a "writer's writer" and one whose work requires. a very different kind of writer. men whose profession is teaching and whose avocation is scholarly criticism. is that Mrs. one notices that. or at least lends itself to. for want of a better label. I suspect. Clock Without Hands. with the publication of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. The narrative burden of her work is always secondary to the allegorical: she is in this sense a didactic writer. for some reason. with one or two exceptions. I shall call academic—that is. either for reasons of space or because he lacks the proper literary background. and from her observation. even highly cultivated readers. The reader who concerns himself exclusively with the realistic level of her stories will never fully appreciate them. though he may be momentarily diverted. The controversy began in 1940. and what she has to teach are those truths about human nature that she has learned from her experience. 269 . are. a considerable amount of explication—more. McCullers's is a very special sensibility with which many readers. and has continued ever since: it has recently received fresh stimulus from the publication of her fifth novel. and in a sense the phenomenon is proof of her individuality and originality as an artist. There is therefore some evidence for believing that Mrs. Mrs. which is profound. at the same time that it is compassionate. The truth. simply unable to establish a rapport. for she does not write to entertain but to teach. It is impossible to understand Mrs. McCullers is not unique among authors in this respect (the case of Ford Madox Ford. It is in no narrower sense than this that she may be thought of as being didactic. is somewhat similar). though I am by no means certain that it explains the controversy. Reviewing this controversy. I think this is emphatically the case. is penetrating to the point of clairvoyance. than the popular reviewer. at any rate. is prepared to supply. the censure has come from professional book reviewers while the praise has come either from other novelists (and a few poets and playwrights) or from a group of critics whom. McCullers's work unless one realizes that she conceives of fiction chiefly as parable. they tend to lose their humanity. they are nevertheless the convictions at which she has arrived out of her experience. they are—as we shall see—of a generally melancholy nature. no specific reforms to recommend: her concern is with nothing less than the soul of man. McCullers's characters are not gratuitous but are essential to the dramatization of her thesis. the symbolic. likes allegory or dislikes it. however. may well be the measure of their suspicion that they are sound. The mutilations and aberrations of Mrs. McCullers has been concerned in her writing do not always flatter the reader. The fact is that this writer is so gifted technically.for she has no particular ax to grind. overlooking the allegorical scheme of which one must be everywhere 270 . so that perhaps the commonest complaint against allegory is that the characters do not seem like "real people. however. becoming symbols rather than people. the point I should like to make here is that though Mrs. These truths with which Mrs. I would be embarrassed to stress so obvious a point if it did not seem to me the best way both of accounting for the peculiar difficulty of Mrs. (The reluctance with which they have viewed them." Readers should bear in mind. but in another.) Be that as it may. which are to that extent allegories and parables. Now the method of allegory involves a certain sacrifice: in proportion as the characters are abstracted. McCullers's work and of assessing her achievement as an artist. so thoroughly in command of the devices of realism (her dialogue is a good example). on the contrary. more indirect and possibly more artistic (to the extent that calculation is involved in a work of art) sense: that is. no program to push. and she is not attempting to create a "true picture" of life in the realistic sense at all. and it is with them that she is primarily concerned in her narratives. McCullers's truths may not be comfortable to live with. and though they may not even be truths. that it is a constant temptation to read her largely on that level. and here is perhaps another reason why many readers have been unwilling to acknowledge them. that this is a criticism of the method rather than of the particular work which employs it: one either approves of abstraction or disapproves of it. between the literal and symbolic levels constitutes one of the most delicate problems in literary art. and failed to do it in Moby Dick. an otherwise badly written book. the most successful allegories are those in which the literal level. and it is the only problem that." But in some of Mrs. is coherent but is never permitted to triumph at the expense of the allegorical. in the character of Hester Prynne. McCullers's often do. Hawthorne did it in The Scarlet Letter. McCullers herself has done it—once.Only the very greatest artists can succeed. which I do not think is on that account her best novel—and I can think of no other living American author who has. in creating characters who are interesting in their own right. The same is true. and though Kafka's characters do not have the human interest that Mrs. Melville did it in Billy Budd. Mrs. It is Mrs. and I think this 271 . Mrs. but the reader understands from the first that it is not to be taken as seriously as the symbolic. " The Fourth Day Out from Santa Cruz. McCullers's work—I will not say all—one is uneasily aware of a struggle between the two levels. In Kafka.conscious in her work. the product of his senescence. as symbols. but in his other work even Hawthorne was by no means invariably successful. since even the most discriminating reader can be distracted from the proper subject of a book by a display of surface brilliance—especially if it occurs in flashes. of Camus. to a somewhat less extent. McCullers's ambiguous achievement that no other living American writer of allegorical fiction has mastered the techniques of realism quite so well: I say ambiguous because I am not at all certain that it has worked to her aesthetic advantage. for that reason. The relationship. in allegory. they are nevertheless more effective. McCullers has not yet finally solved. it is there. at the same time they are concerned primarily with allegorical meanings. for all her astonishing virtuosity. as there are innumerable failures—some of them magnificent failures—to testify. the product of his prime. unless it be Paul Bowles in that remarkable little story that almost no one seems to have read more than once. for example —a pure allegorist —the realistic level is negligible. however simple. Granted the difficulties that inhere in the abstraction process. in The Member of the Wedding. some brighter than others. while love is the only force that can unite men. love is never completely mutual and is subject to time. Irving Howe when he calls it "one of the finest novels ever written by an American" ( New York Times Book Review. while it lasts. to be a deaf mute. Singer. here and there. McCullers was mainly concerned in the first decade of her career are the spiritual isolation of the individual and the power of love to free him from this condition. I should say that. September 17. she dramatizes this idea by causing her protagonist. since the object of his love. 272 . are so improbable that few readers have any difficulty separating them from the allegorical.) The novels of what we may term her "middle period" do not suffer from this defect. Clock Without Hands. 1961). while coherent. as pure allegory. and her latest. McCullers has wrought the miracle of creating a character that is as effective humanly as she is symbolically — Frankie Addams. McCullers's favorite authors. Ordinary verbal communication results in failure. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. the half-witted Antonapoulos. and I believe I do. affording him temporary relief from his solitude. The themes with which Mrs. that is satisfactory— and it is only relatively so. it is only through ideal communication. It is as though Camus were attempting to write. In The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. McCullers's most successful book. diminishing with the death of the love object.explains the unevenness that many readers have found in it. The Ballad of the Sad Café is Mrs. is one of Mrs. it is in spite of the fact that in the latter work Mrs. ( Flaubert. and I quite agree with Mr. is beneficial to the lover. that men can hope to escape from their cells. or suffer from it so slightly that we are scarcely conscious of it: the literal levels in Reflections in a Golden Eye and The Ballad of the Sad Café. by the way. in the style of Flaubert—and succeeding. I am particularly conscious of this struggle in her first novel. of the several which are depicted in the novel. The melancholy message here is that. does not reciprocate it and soon dies. and it is not in spite of this limitation but because of it that his experience in love is the only one. The single consolation is that love. If I admire it more than The Member of the Wedding. or love. with something of the formal beauty of a Bach fugue. that "The most outlandish people can be the stimulus for love. and a drug addict. whose protagonist is an adolescent girl. and when the play. finally appeared. stolen her belongings. The value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover. in the second novel. and one wondered if the author had not said all she had to say on the theme of human love and loneliness. thus illustrating yet another thesis of the author. McCullers being the kind of writer she is) another theme had chosen her. a kleptomaniac. The beloved fears and hates the lover. Amelia Evans.. somewhat more obliquely. and in The Member of the Wedding. Seven years of silence seemed to confirm this suspicion. where spiritual isolation is symbolized in the character of Captain Penderton. never really inside nor out. a sadist. an ex- convict. and tubercular.. her admirers read it eagerly to see if she had chosen another theme— or rather to see if (Mrs. It is the saddest of Mrs. Reflections in a Golden Eye. on the threshold of things." Her protagonist here is a lonely manlike giantess. however. who falls in love with a dwarf who is also homosexual. There is a terrible finality about the vision of life set forth in The Ballad of the Sad Café. and the two revenge themselves upon her by running off together—but not before they have wrecked her place of business.. who feels herself too old to associate with children and too young to mingle confidently with adults: she is "an unjoined person who hangs around in doorways"—that is.This same idea was presented... My husband wanted to be a 273 . But it was in The Ballad of the Sad Café that the related themes of spiritual isolation and the nature and function of love received their fullest and most mature treatment. for in it she reaches the profoundly pessimistic conclusion that "The state of being beloved is intolerable to many. and attempted to poison her. the dwarf maliciously solicits the attentions of Amelia's former husband. The Square Root of Wonderful. McCullers's novels at the same time that it is the most nearly perfect. They were encouraged in this expectation by a statement in the preface: In The Square Root of Wonderful I recognize many of the compulsions that made me write this play. who is a homosexual. Frankie Addams." Instead of returning her love.. hunchbacked. The play's protagonist is a young woman. Mollie Lovejoy. and when Philip realizes he has lost her for good he drowns himself. There are.writer and his failure in that was one of the disappointments that led to his death. her ex-husband. a fatuous but domineering woman whose mismanagement of Philip's childhood is responsible for many of his problems (he loathes her. and childhood. but repents almost immediately. The two men are opposites: John is dull but strong. The play. to be sure. returns. who has been twice married to and divorced from the same man. the life-death theme of The Square Root of Wonderful emerged. and of Frankie's 274 . after the failure of his latest play. I wanted to recreate my mother—to remember her tranquil beauty and sense of joy in life."). Mother Lovejoy. and Sister's fantasies remind us of Mick's. unconsciously. calling her to her face a "babbling old horror"). Mollie is then free to marry John. Paris. Mollie has meanwhile fallen in love with an architect. He does not love Mollie—it is made clear that he is incapable of loving anyone—but he needs her desperately and insists that she love him. a once- famous writer who. and is on the point of marrying him when Philip. So. and he worships Mollie. "When it speaks to you you have to answer. and is generally different from her earlier work. her daughter. and you have to go wherever it tells you. Philip is weak and has learned to use his weakness to advantage with women. When I started The Square Root of Wonderful my mother was very ill and after a few months she died. McCullers in her preface calls it a tragicomedy). Other characters are Mollie's thirteen-year-old son. has attempted suicide and is convalescing in a rest home. even if it does not have the conventional happy ending (Mrs. it will be seen. certain correspondences: the irrationality of love is again insisted upon ("Love is very much like witches and ghosts." Mollie says. ends on a "positive" note. in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. but he is charming and perceptive. a homely spinster who compensates for the drabness of her situation by inventing fantasies involving Latin lovers. so also is the loneliness that springs from an incapacity for love ("I feel surrounded by a zone of loneliness. John." Philip complains). In a moment of weakness she yields to him once more. and Sister. I hate clocks. that enables Singer to forget his powerful love for Antonapoulos in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. in Freudian terms. the death wish (it is significant that he takes his own life). normal in other respects. Philip. apropos of the grandfather clock. The relation of time to love is obvious: it is the Great Enemy of love as it is of life. 275 . and Mollie. Life triumphs over death in the play. and indeed the two plays have very similar conclusions. personifies the death principle. obviously related to that of loneliness and love. But in relation to loneliness. in The Square Root of Wonderful. I don't respect anybody who reads diaries. as for all unhappy people. personifies the vital principle. Mollie remarks. busily winding time. Busily." and Philip replies: "It puts me in mind of time. Thus. and in that sense may be thought of as a traitor and an enemy." Philip does not dislike clocks because they remind him that time is running out. you eavesdrop and read diaries. As a play. and time alone. but it is an even greater enemy to the loveless. "It has a lovely chime." and it is time. A preoccupation with the meaning of time is also evident in The Square Root of Wonderful. in his inability to love. You were winding it when I came back. and in a sense it is the triumph of the mediocre over the exceptional. "It reminds me of peace and family. Ferris presses his little boy close to him "as though an emotion as protean as his love could dominate the pulse of time. saying: "Mother. But the life—death theme.in The Member of the Wedding. the characterization of John is thin. in A Streetcar Named Desire. of which love is the surest sign and the happiest manifestation. Time passes quickly for the lover. The Square Root of Wonderful has a good many faults: there are too many "gag lines" on a rather low level of humor. time takes on another significance. because they remind him of how much time he will have to kill before he finds release from his loneliness: for him." Mollie merely says. is here the important thing. who is capable of loving more than one man simultaneously. he dislikes them for the opposite reason. for Philip is certainly the most interesting character in the play: the healthy vulgarity of Mollie reminds one of Stella. In as early a story as "The Sojourner" ( 1950). and that of Paris inconsistent (imagine a twelve-year-old. clocks do not run too fast but too slow. or. McCullers's friendship with Tennessee Williams. T. and. age eighty‐ five. Jester. the Judge's grandson. by and large. is in search of an identity: he has not yet decided what he wants to be in life. and very few of them bothered to look beneath its surface. and in his case the fact coincides directly with the symbol. Still a third character. as she observes in the preface. and a blue-eyed Negro youth named Sherman Pew. as he was a foundling who received his surname from the circumstance of his having been abandoned in a church. likewise. his friend. in a flash of self-knowledge born of the realization of his approaching death. Judge Clane."). he realizes that he has never really lived: how then. and Mother Lovejoy bears too obvious a resemblance to Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie—she boasts of the many gentlemen callers she received before marrying her husband. a militant white supremacist.Sly people. just as her relationship to Philip is identical with Amanda's to Tom. Malone has been told by his physician that he has leukemia. gave her credit for—they were merely courteous. Sherman.) But it is a better play than the reviewers. Jester. he wonders. will have some meaning. a forty- year‐ old pharmacist. and is thus like a man watching a clock without hands. who is nineteen. his father having committed suicide shortly before his mother died in giving him birth. before it ends. has profoundly affected both her life and her work. who (like Amanda's) later walked out on her. and the anonymity of his situation is symbolized in the fact that he has never known either of his parents. though he has many passing interests he feels no "call" for any particular vocation. (Mrs.When the novel opens. Malone. Clock Without Hands has four main characters: J. And it is important in that it represents a widening of the author's perspective to include other metaphysical problems than those with which she had previously been occupied. and her relationship to Sister is identical with Amanda's to Laura. is seeking to know himself. Malone is a sheeplike man who has allowed his life to be managed for him by other people. though he knows he must die he does not know when. can he die? He is determined to acquire an identity in the few months remaining to him so that his life. 276 . but the trial. McCullers's earlier work—even in The Square Root of Wonderful—she was concerned with the loneliness that results from a lack of rapport with other individuals. Maddened by his failure. for when he moves into a white neighborhood his house is bombed. his opportunity comes when. incidentally). at which the Judge presided. and it is connected with the mystery surrounding the suicide of Jester's father. Jester finally learns from the Judge that he and his son had not seen eye-to-eye on the race problem (neither do Jester and the Judge. proved a mockery of justice: the Negro was hanged. As for Malone. though he has been warned by Jester. Sherman is not so fortunate. had fallen in love with one of his clients. by the injustice of the incident. he refuses to flee and loses his life. by the frustration of his love. who had refused to testify against him. Sherman Pew was this woman's son by her Negro lover. in Clock Without Hands she is concerned with the loneliness that results from a lack of rapport with the self. In all of Mrs. and that his father. at a drawing of lots to determine who shall bomb Sherman's house. the job falls to him and he refuses it. Jester's father shot himself. cursed Jester's father on her deathbed—she died in childbirth shortly after the trial—for losing the case. who has taken orders all his life. and. who never guessed that he took more than a professional interest in the case.The mystery surrounding Sherman's parentage adds much to the interest of the plot on a realistic level. and he resolves to become a lawyer himself and take up the battle where his father left off: his life thus achieves moral direction. he is to find his identity in martyrdom. and the woman. The search for self is the theme of her latest novel. Shortly after this he dies with the consolation of having made a moral choice for himself and thus of having lived at last. however briefly. a lawyer. a white woman whose Negro lover was on trial for murdering her husband. Jester's father tried to convince the jury that the killing was in self defense (which it was). and in its insistence upon the necessity for moral engagement and upon the importance of choice one recognizes the impact of existential doctrine: 277 . and by the death of his client. Jester's inherent liberalism is strengthened by the knowledge that social injustice has been partly to blame for the tragedy of his father's life. etc. not because he lacks identity but because when his wife. It is for this reason that Malone. five dollars. lounging in his grandfather's big house. as we have noted. and the sentence in it that most impresses him is: "The greatest danger. died. invents a fantasy that she is Marian Anderson." The old Judge is lonely also.." is horribly bored and haunted toward the end by a feeling that he must "do something. is at the very center of the book. He does not love his grandson so much as he is hurt by the knowledge (which he tries to conceal from himself) that Jester can no longer love him. a leg. that the summer seems interminable to Jester. which is merely another way of saying that they are unconsciously seeking a love object. of whom it is significant that he cannot love his wife: he is seeking an ideal love. every other loss. in spite of the job the Judge gives him as his "private amanuensis. and when one is lonely time. is sure to be noticed. (The book that Malone chooses to read in the hospital is Kierkegaard's Sickness Unto Death. and that Sherman. This is symbolized on the literal level by the fact that Jester cannot love his grandfather and that Sherman. not a physical one (like Frankie.The same is true of Malone. and they are both related to the time phenomenon: loss of identity results in loneliness. passes with maddening slowness." indeed.") I have shown how the theme of identity is related to that of loneliness. his capacity for love died with her. "the 'we' of me. that of an arm. longing for a mother. The theme of identity is also related to that of ideal love. a wife. whom he loved sincerely. he does not wish to be joined to any particular person but to that which joins all people—as Frankie puts it.the "existential crisis.") It is by thus identifying themselves with something larger than themselves—in this case the ideal of social justice— that all of them become conscious of their individual identities. that of losing one's own self. both Jester and Sherman yearn to identify themselves with something bigger than themselves and outside themselves. may pass off quietly as if it were nothing. Like Frankie in The Member of the Wedding. while he is waiting for his death—or rather for the moment of free engagement which will give meaning to his life— complains of a "zone of loneliness" (the same phrase that Philip uses in The Square Root of Wonderful). 278 . which center about the restoration of Confederate currency by the federal government. for it will be remembered that Jester's father was in love with his client. Just as Mick dreams of becoming a concert pianist in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Frankie dreams of traveling around the world in The Member of the Wedding. as in The Ballad of the Sad Café. There is also in this novel the same peculiar mixture of love and pity that characterized the relationship of Singer and Antonapoulos in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter of Mrs. bored with his wife and work. but in Clock Without Hands. Yet another familiar idea in Clock Without Hands is that illusions are necessary to enable men to endure their existence. he 279 . Zippo. and of Amelia and the dwarf in The Ballad of the Sad Café. McCullers's work. The pattern is even carried back to an earlier generation. the beloved "fears and hates" the lover: when Jester attempts to kiss Sherman. who constantly mistreats him. And just as Mrs. and when Malone's wife makes advances to him he is repelled and rushes from the house. the caress is returned with a blow. she has here been at pains to depict another impossible situation. whose "house guest" he is and who mistreats him. As for Malone. Here. love on the physical level is doomed to disappointment: Malone's daughter. For Mrs. and just as Sister in The Square Root of Wonderful chooses her lovers from the Mediterranean area. who cursed him with her dying breath. McCullers in her other novels was careful to select characters between whom any physical union was out of the question (like the manlike Amelia and the homosexual dwarf). so here Jester dreams of saving Marilyn Monroe from an avalanche in Switzerland and riding down Broadway in a blizzard of ticker tape. and Jester feels sorry for Sherman because of his race. who is scarcely aware of her existence. Ellen. as elsewhere in Mrs. Even the old Judge has his dreams. of Martin Meadows and Emily in the short story "A Domestic Dilemma". Malone's ill‐ timed advances are made in the knowledge that her husband has not long to live. since Sherman is not only of the same sex as Jester but is also a Negro. Jester is secretly in love with Sherman.The search for identity parallels the search for ideal love. loves Jester. Langdon and Anacleto in Reflections in a Golden Eye. while Sherman convinces himself that his real mother is Marian Anderson and writes her letters that are never answered. and Sherman worships another Negro. as Faulkner's often is. 280 . which is full of incidental meanings and of the wonderful insights and observations that we have come to expect of its author ("The laughter of disaster does not stop easily. will be as convincing as a human being as she is effective allegorically. is Everyman. It is full. and so they laughed for a long time." I have only hinted at the extraordinary richness of this novel. for in no sense is he the protagonist of the book. The chief defects of Clock Without Hands are thus defects of emphasis and proportion.daydreams constantly. There is still a third alternative—of creating a main character who. each for his own disaster"). it goes straight to the heart of its subject. in fact. with Everyman's share of faults but also with his dignity and capacity for the moral life. and I almost wish that this were not the case. The realistic level of the novel is concerned with his activities. like Frankie Addams. a compassion that embraces even the dishonest old Judge. indeed. McCullers is now faced with the choice of returning to pure allegory like The Ballad of the Sad Café or of writing a straight realistic novel. the situation of most men. which are expressed in terms of allegory. and it rarely fumbles. who reads the Kinsey Report behind the covers of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire but sees that it is banned from the public library. too. he is Mrs. and his situation reminds us of Frankie Addams's: it is. McCullers's best character to date. and they are so engrossing in themselves that they detract from the primary themes. of her powerful compassion. As I see it. forced into an unhappy compromise between the ideal romantic relationships for which they long and those humdrum and unsatisfactory substitutes which are available to them. It is ironical that her gift for realism. especially in dialogue and characterization. The author has allowed herself to be carried away in the process of creating a character who. for all his lifelikeness.Her writing is almost never peripheral. I do not think I overstate the case when I say that Carson McCullers is probably the best allegorical writer in America since Hawthorne and Melville. has operated in her case less as a blessing than as a curse. The Judge is marvelously real. is minor to her essential purpose. Mrs. Malone. And of course the shadow of his impending death is the same shadow under which all men labor: to this extent we are all watching a "clock without hands. Clayton argues that the politics of Jewish immigrant culture was largely radical—anarchist. especially suffering as a result of some essential injustice in the human or divine world. To understand Doctorow's pull toward political fiction. Zionist. His paternal grandfather was an intellectual. or some amalgam of these with faith in the labor movement (110). Doctorow was born in the Bronx (New York City) in 1931 to lower-middle-class Jewish-American parents.E. “It is the heritage of Jewish writers to deal with suffering. 281 . socialist. with his stylistic experimentation. Doctorow The political content of Doctorow's fiction has often been commented upon by reviewers and authors of short articles. Furthermore. L. communist. as well as the particular contours of politics in his fiction. it is useful to review his biography. Religious practice need not play a critical role in defining oneself as a Jew. Yet there is no booklength scholarly study of how politics informs Doctorow's work. His family's and to some extent Doctorow's own political and religious views have been characterized by critic John Clayton as radical Jewish humanism. which is best understood by apprehending his political vision in combination with the specific genre choices he makes in each work. such as Don De Lillo's Underworld and Toni Morrison's Beloved. L. Presently there is such excitement over some socially conscious fiction. suffering to which they offer a response of compassion and yearning for a life modeled on human kindness” (in Trenner 109). E. and an atheist. one's sensibility and ideals might. with his continual revision of American myths. This gap compromises our ability to appreciate Doctorow's fiction. that it may be difficult to recall how disparaged political writing has been as recently as the 1980s. rather. when what some have described as more insulated fiction was far more popular. a socialist. one of the New Criticism's foremost critics at a time when this approach reigned. majored in philosophy. Doctorow is wary of direct statements. But unlike some other writers. Doctorow is predisposed to privacy. In a conversation with me years ago Doctorow acknowledged the tension between his upbringing in a New York progressive Jewish home and his schooling in a college stressing formalism. but emphasized that the tension was ultimately productive. having written numerous essays that critique government policy or public sensibility in matters such as nuclear weapons. ” a self-contained artifact that could be understood by examining its formal techniques. enabling him to avoid the excesses of both formulaic political writing and the academic dandy novel. and coming of age at a particular historical moment. similar to the filmmaker in Rent. Certainly he has inserted himself into public debates. coupled with the conservative political climate of the 1950s. Certainly Doctorow shies away from direct political involvement in part because he is afraid of taking too much time away from his writing. a particular upbringing. such as Amiri Baraka. He navigates between these extremes through his adaptation of popular and literary genres as well by his insistence on certain themes. who boldly assert their political views. Left to my own devices I will write fiction. I will choose the thrown voice and its tropes” (ix). The New Criticism perceived of a literary work as a “well- wrought urn. But more importantly. Unlike some contemporary authors who seem to glow in celebrity status. It is a politics borne out of a combination of a private personality. who chronicles his 282 . “With one exception the pieces in this book were written because someone asked me to write them. he adheres to a vision of the artist as detached witness. made many critics wary of political novels. The insular approach of this criticism. and studied with John Crowe Ransom. The image of the novelist as ventriloquist evokes Bakhtin's concept of indirect discourse and prompts me to describe Doctorow's politics as a politics of indirection.As an undergraduate in the 1950s Doctorow attended Kenyon College. Hemingway and the Constitution. ready to dismiss them as propaganda. not by examining the context in which it was written. Consider his words in the introduction to his collection of essays Jack London. and historical forces that have shaped his life and inform his fiction. The postmodern vein in Doctorow's fiction and in essays such as “False Documents. might be seen as a skeptic's position— the belief that true knowledge or knowledge of a particular area is uncertain. Doctorow constantly seeks to re-envision the familial. Alternatively. he is also suspicious of radical uncertainty and passionately committed to certain idea and causes. In an interview with Richard Trenner. Doctorow reflected on his experience of coming of age during the McCarthy era. We think of ourselves as loners” (37). social. more importantly. In his introduction to Jack London. of the possibility of knowing with certainty. a particular concern of The Book of Daniel. First. As Doctorow himself once explained in an interview with Larry McCaffery. one adopts an attitude of doubt or disposition toward incredulity. conformity was enforced. a suspicion that takes many forms. “It's the fate of my generation that we've never shared a monumental experience. Part of this distance may be attributed to Doctorow's skepticism about the possibility of affecting change. Dissent was dangerous. “Politics and the Mode of Fiction. The resultant stance. For Doctorow absolute certainty of one's position or the possibility of definitively answering questions is itself a danger. it may manifest itself in novels such as Welcome to Hard Times by expressing distrust of progress and Enlightenment ideals. it may take the form of distrust of political processes.friends' lives while remaining at a distance from them. ” widely commented upon. Yet while he remains suspicious of definite answers and. a skepticism commonly associated with postmodernism. ” Doctorow refers to being 283 . a time when many politicians shamelessly jumped on an anti-Red bandwagon and blacklisting destroyed many lives. While he may not identify a collective experience that has shaped his generation. Hemingway. It was also a time during which news of Stalin's atrocities and other revelations about Russian communism shattered the vision of some leftists that communism was an extension of democratic ideals. Doctorow and other members of the so-called Silent Generation reacted to these two phenomena with detachment and withdrawal from the political process. hence. I have termed skeptical commitment. manifested differently in various works but present throughout Doctorow's fiction. Essentially. and gender issues in Ragtime and World's Fair. of what's fair and what's not (52).. “there is no hope for political progress until people can be freed from their neurotic character structures”(Levine “Writer” 64). is a crucial part of the “commitment. Loon Lake. to carry into action deliberately. “. Loon Lake. To quote Doctorow advocating a view he attributes to Wilhelm Reich.. it is the logical outgrowth of his aversion to political sloganeering typical of the 1960s and 1970s. There is. often suggesting sympathies with the underclass while critiquing individual greed and its concomitant lack of community values. and Lives of the Poets: A Novella and Six Stories. Doctorow's fiction is particularly sensitive to class issues. ” even if it begins on a micropolitical level of work on the self. In part. and perhaps an awareness of the futility of leaders trying to change countries when they could not change themselves. Throughout his fiction he depicts inequality in what we have come to call the “trinity of oppression”—especially race issues in Ragtime. this equation stems from Doctorow's suspicion of organized politics.characterized as someone with a primitive sense of justice. or at least for some personal resolution. his vision of the just society is one which would enable people to self- actualize. and often some form of public action. in a truly just society. I believe. the word “commit” means to oblige or bind. to assign or pledge to some particular course. address only this “trinity” of inequities. This fiction does not. It is a yearning that is particularly expressed through the artist figures in Ragtime. a very keen perception of Doctorow's political vision in this assessment. the quest for personal fulfillment. 284 . According to Doctorow. however. and The Waterworks. suggests attachment. for in Doctorow's fiction the personal is indeed political. he be allowed to practice his poetry” (Trenner 55). This vision of personal fulfillment has ramifications far beyond an individual's life. Billy Bathgate. Rather. ” that is. in part. The Book of Daniel. Hence. class issues in Welcome to Hard Times. “commitment. everyone [would] be able to live as he or she is endowed to live. that if a person is in his [sic] genes a poet. whether it be the family or the Pentagon or God” (Levine “Writer” 69). however. and the like.” Doctorow struggles to accommodate this form to his artistry (as successful practitioners of the work have always done). and what it means to be committed. “independent witnesses . Rather than having an omniscient narrator report on situations. not from ideals such as justice. Cynical detachment is one possible response. To this end. the idea of the writer bearing witness is indeed important.” For many contemporary authors. he has repeatedly adapted genres such as the Western. and World's Fair (1986). suggested particularly by Daniel in the earlier parts of The Book of Daniel. featured the jeremiad as a prolonged complaint. and the detective novel. and thus avoiding didacticism. a prophet's indictment of his society characteristic of work such as the muckrakers' novels or Allan Ginsberg's “Howl. I have never told the whole truth. in part./ Forgive me” (7—9)./ No.American literature has. whether it is possible to progress. None do so as directly. Waring's speaker does not tell the truth because.. “I would say. often playing with accepted conventions. the romance. which results in a stillbirth. Each of Doctorow's major novels raises questions about the artist's relation to political and social issues. Hence. writers must be. but for Doctorow the detachment is from official institutions. more desirable one. Here she describes a doctor's indifference to a patient. The echoes of Stephen Dedalus here reinforce the notion of the artist's detachment. but who nonetheless “bear witness. as his two autobiographically based works: Lives of the Poets: A Novella and Six Short Stories (1985). not connected to the defense of any institution. it is useful to begin close examination of Doctorow's fiction with these works. but ambivalent involvement represented in the figures of Jonathan at the end of the novella Lives of the Poets or McIllvaine in The Waterworks is another. Reflecting on how she told a father of his newborn's death. To be effective witnesses. Consider the poem “It Was My First Nursing Job” in Dark Blond by Belle Waring. Doctorow's novels often feature narrators who agonize about their ability to comprehend and render events. since the time of the Puritans. she is a nurse and her loyalties are to the institutions and the doctors with whom she works as well as to the patients. equality.. I am your witness. according to Doctorow. she ponders that today. Lives of the Poets: A Novella and Six Short 285 . L. enlightened false consciousness recognizes a futility in many activities such as voting in elections. According to Sloterdijk. “The Leather Man” depicts a person who grotesquely dresses in layers of coats and shawls. This metafictional element is virtually the only experimental feature of this volume. The cynic is distinguished by his/her enlightened false consciousness. His detached. there is a certain typicality to The Leather Man's bizarre behavior. and so forth. trying to become upwardly mobile. In contrast to this false consciousness that naively embraces reigning ideologies. enlightened false consciousness characterizes the modern period. There's a definite political component of avoiding all other human beings and taking on the coloration of your surroundings” (69). Thompson in E. His bizarre attire is not to be taken as a mark of individual maladjustment. vote for politicians whose tax policies benefit only the rich. rather. topped with a leather outer armor and a pointed leather hat. Critics Carol Harter and James R. In Anderson's work. but nonetheless goes through the motions because doing so is necessary for economic. and tried to live his life by it. Ohio. Doctorow have pointed out a common theme of dereliction in these works (105). and that of so many Doctorow characters. as Sloterdijk claims. an elderly writer (a frequent Doctorow narrator) observed hundreds of truths that were all beautiful. citizens in bourgeois cultures often develop a false consciousness that identifies with ruling class interests rather than their own. his behavior is in fact common to those who are unable to commit to a political or even a personal belief system. survival. Alternatively and somewhat paradoxically. called it the truth. The term “grotesque” here is one Doctorow has adapted from Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg. In Marxist theory. Sloterdijk's revision of this Marxist concept. may be partially explained by reference to the theories of political theorist Peter Sloterdijk on cynical detachment.Stories (1984) contains stories. he became a grotesque and the truth 286 . “The Leather Man” may be seen as a grotesque. Lives of the Poets. If. for example. People might. the cynic is often a cutting-edge figure on the urban landscape. and to some extent emotional. presumably by the writer of the novella that follows. alienated stance. “You remember your Thoreau. but “the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself. effectively bearing witness to the man's dreams and giving him an appropriate death. but the two of them live apart. a failure by many standards. A sense of disconnection inherent in “The Leather Man” also runs through other stories such as “The Water Works” in which the body of a young boy who has drowned in a water tower is found. he is suggesting the alienation that a writer's isolation can bring. the boy finally writes a letter stating he [the father] is dying and wishes to have his ashes scattered in the ocean.became a lie” (4—5). In the course of narrating his subject the boy comes to understand his father. a middle-aged New York City writer. Indeed. Here and throughout the stories in this volume Doctorow questions whether there is a possibility of community. and himself.) “The Leather Man” may be seen as a grotesque of an often revered American type. married for the second or third time. His cohorts are other successful writers whose lives might be described as typical Updike lives: living in comfortable ennui. In the act of writing the boy recreates his father's life and memory. the boy's family goads him into pretending to be his father and writing letters to the elderly woman. The main character. Realizing that his father's dream was to go to sea. as well as the separation that accompanies 287 . is suffering various minor physical ailments and a general sense of dissatisfaction with his life. he in New York City. The narrator is a boy whose father has recently died and who has fine writing skills. In “The Writer in the Family” Doctorow more directly represents some of the choices writers must make as they bear witness to their subjects. Although a recognized writer with a seemingly comfortable life. Notice here the suggestion that the nature of truth is constantly shifting. the rugged individual. she in their suburban home. Jonathan. In stating that each book he writes took him further away from himself. he is obviously estranged—from other people. his wife. The theme of the writer's isolation and responsibilities is more extensively developed in the novella Lives of the Poets. The Political Fiction argues that extreme individualism at the expense of community values is often depicted as grotesque in Doctorow's fiction. Jonathan is still married to his first wife. Unwilling to break the news of the man's death to a frail grandmother. they often feel alienated and detached. the writer will nurture someone who will perhaps bear witness to his own experience with oppression. and grandmother. both boys' families experience downward mobility. Welcome to Hard Times. an impetus provided by a woman who asks him to shelter illegal aliens. Still. World's Fair (1985) is a künstlerroman about a New York Jewish boy developing into a writer in the 1930s. It is an image of activism that only half succeeds because it is only half-believable that Jonathan would involve himself in such a risky project. World's Fair thus continues the experimentation Doctorow began in his first novel. the praxis is local and specific to the writer. As represented in this novel. The commitment is qualified (Jonathan teaches one boy to type) yet definite. Yet as the latter 288 . We had wonderful friends. Edgar is asthmatic. For example. a pivotal decade for many Americans on the left and one that is the frequent setting of Doctorow novels. his mother Rose says. Edgar has much in common with typical künstlerroman protagonists. “Phil admired your father very much. In his restless. brother. Edgar threatened by anti-Semites. Only now do I see that our lives could have gone in an entirely different direction” (29). notably Stephen Dedalus from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: while Stephen has poor eyesight. suggested in his friends' having uniformly stopped taking public transportation in favor of taxis. Many of the male behaviors and attitudes in this novella might be understood by considering theories by feminists such as Carol Gilligan and Nancy Chodorow. In keeping with the themes of connection expressed in Lives of the Poets. The image of his teaching the alien boy to type is one of father-son nurturance strikingly different from the strained father-son relationships that permeate much of Doctorow's work.success. dissatisfied state Jonathan perhaps needs only the impetus to connect with others. the men privilege individuation and autonomy at the expense of connection. and reflects his interest in language's oral quality. World's Fair includes the voices and perceptions of narrators other than the boy Edgar—his mother. Stephen is bullied by classmates. As a result. the novella is one of the earlier works that suggests Doctorow is striving to develop an appropriate praxis. the voice that will inform the young boy's fiction. Significantly. Edgar must come to terms with consumer culture represented by the World's Fair. This fair ironically holds out the promise of progress at a time when Hitler is gaining control in Europe. If he is anything he should say what it is when challenged” (244). Written in the aftermath of the confrontation with anti-Semitic thugs whom Edgar escapes only by telling he is not Jewish. This is the impetus. But most importantly. Doctorow did not publish autobiographical pieces early in his career. the Bad Man who destroys the town is named Clay Turner. the essay states that the typical American boy should hate Hitler. as in so much of Doctorow's fiction the definition and possibility of progress itself is questioned. Unlike many novelists. Furthermore. Welcome to Hard Times also bears the mark of the very recent memory of the Holocaust and the existentialist philosophy that so influenced Doctorow and other intellectuals in the 1950s. Edgar's prize-winning (albeit second prize) essay on “The Typical American Boy” suggests the necessity of a writer's stating his/her Jewish identity in a public document. a genre that dates back to Stephen Crane's “The Blue Hotel. “if he is Jewish he should say so. Indeed. World's Fair. In this first novel Doctorow establishes the political themes that would in various ways be expressed throughout his work—the responsibility of the artist as historian and witness. In 289 . and Doctorow had not yet been west of Ohio. the problematic notions of history and progress. far more than most bildungsromane. As critics have noted. suggests Edgar coming of age in his society by finding his place in it—not rejecting it as Dedalus did. In addition to resolving his feelings about his somewhat dreamy father and detached. Frederick Jackson Turner's The Frontier in American History forms a background for many of the ideas and actions in this novel. and America is struggling for economic recovery. the destructiveness of greed in a community. critical mother. Welcome to Hard Times is an inverted Western. his first novel Welcome to Hard Times (1960) is a western.” These revisions of popular westerns emphasize the region's dark side and complicate notions of good and evil.example suggests. a sense. the Bad Man. for their coming together suggests a hope in the future despite their having been traumatized by past wounds. the prostitute Molly. Blue tells her that the town is ready to stand up to the Bad Man. In a multiplication of evil. Molly. and literary critics—the relationship between history and interpretation. The survivors of the Bad Man's carnage—Blue. for Blue constantly questions the accuracy of his memory as well as the possibility of recording what occurred. is a grotesque of Turner's rugged individual. After surviving a harsh winter. historiographers. Molly grows increasingly anxious that the Bad Man will return. Ironically. Blue. The cycle is fully 290 . failing to recognize that Hard Times is a typical gold rush town whose only institutions are brothels and saloons: the antithesis of a community. Blue is optimistic when new settlers arrive and economic activity flourishes. Both Blue's family and the town of Hard Times evolve out of self-interest and greed rather than a sense of community. On a personal level. frontier society created a primitive organization based somewhat on the family. When the boom dies. While Blue glories in the town's prosperity. The latter record is much more problematic. the people who have overextended themselves are ruined and become vicious. it is indeed vulnerable to scoundrels. and the role of contingencies in history. who indeed appears larger than life. and the orphan Jimmy Fee— form a loose family that unfortunately mirrors its society. two Bad Men ride into town. The uncertainty about history and interpretation is a key component of the “skepticism” that marks Doctorow's skeptical commitment. between history and memory. but fundamentally antisocial. According to Turner. he writes down events. Significantly. he resumes the record-keeping he maintained before the conflagration. Rather than simply logging deaths and births. but with an important change. Because the town fails to balance individual gain with community welfare. the blended family represents issues of dealing with the past. Within Welcome to Hard Times the “commitment” is best suggested in the fable-like tale of a town that cannot recover from its past. and Jimmy Fee become what is the first of many blended families in Doctorow novels. Welcome to Hard Times indeed articulates many of the concerns that have preoccupied historians. Blue could not fight against the Bad Man. Doctorow suggested that it is not dark enough and he did not take enough risks in writing it. a book that. ” an end to impasse for future generations. and the style not up to Doctorow's usual quality. travelogue. a science fiction book. perhaps what he learned from the shortcomings in Big as Life facilitated his writing his brilliant third novel. the dying Blue hopes only that the wood remains may be useful to someone. as Daniel says after 291 . seemingly combining genres as diverse as the dissertation. and he himself becomes an outlaw. Big as Life (1966). suggesting the difficulty of writing and interpretation themselves. There is a decision by the jury and. recanted. kills her and the Bad Man. as his Mardi. Far more than any other Doctorow novel. Barbara Foley. The continuing controversy surrounding the Rosenberg case upon which the Isaacson Case is closely modeled suggests important questions about the relationship between indeterminacy and commitment. The novel's style is boldly experimental. a subsequent judgment by history. trying to defend Molly. exhumed. but when Jimmy Fee. In “False Documents” Doctorow articulates how a controversial case such as the Rosenberg could be an inspiration to him: “Facts are buried. when the historical and prejudicial context of the decision is examined. contradicted. As Doctorow would say. If this is so. the Rosenberg Case. and memoir. frequently shifting chronology and point of view. The Book of Daniel walks a line between representing that. but perhaps his works and remnants could. did not work. And the trial shimmers forever with just the perplexing ambiguity characteristic of a true novel” (in Trenner 23). It is also metafictional. Witnessing such destruction. Doctorow has described his next novel. or we might say inspired by. The Book of Daniel engages the central tenets of postmodernism. this novel was “occasioned” by. suggest a “way out. The plot is far-fetched. deposed. would say.repeated when the town is not only burned to the ground. Jimmy Fee is the first of many Doctorow children whom society fails to nurture. history text. despite years of effort. In The Book of Daniel Doctorow finds a way to further explore and complicate questions concerning the possibility of actually recording and knowing history. discussing proletarian fiction and praxis. The Book of Daniel (1971). In speculating as to why this second novel failed. As a detached urban figure going through motions of getting a degree. all converging at the center. the left. Because it walks the line between indeterminacy and verification so well. being a cruel spouse and parent. 292 . but nonetheless tries to be referential and establish truths. are true. verifiable. He has moved back to the urban setting that repeatedly energizes his work as well as heightens the apparent alienation of characters. In a novel in which there is so much indeterminacy.meeting the long-sought Selig Mindish. and the fourth is titled “Starfish. during her trial Rochelle Isaacson logically assesses factors affecting the trial—the nature of the jury and the prosecution. and the Isaacson themselves are shown to be complicit. the news coverage. communists. In this novel Doctorow further develops the connection between the personal and the political suggested in Welcome to Hard Times. He cannot embrace any social institution because his own participation in the society that killed his parents not only rankles him. such as infringements on individual liberty during the McCarthy era. Daniel is so thoroughly disillusioned and cynical in part because there are no heroes in the Isaacson case—Jews. For example. and often sadistic man undercuts sentimental caricatures of survivors. particularly orphan children. Such material can never be completely integrated into the book. Daniel fits Sloterdijk's profile of a modern cynic. Daniel perpetuates the resultant political wounds on a personal level. Daniel's difficulty in understanding political oppression as well as his parents' and other communists' complicity in it are graphically represented in the novel's structure. marrying. the March on the Pentagon. The Book of Daniel can be seen as an example of what critic Alan Wilde calls “midfiction”— fiction that uses postmodern techniques and accepts the primacy of surface. “the truth is irretrievable” and demonstrating that certain events. and having a child. and indeed this section takes us to “the heart of the matter” in the book— the actual trial. and must be acknowledged. Susan's catatonic state. Three of its sections are named for holidays. the fact that some things are apparent and can be objectively assessed is striking.” The obviously disjunctive section refers to the starfish's points. bitter. the Korean War—and soundly concludes that they will be judged guilty. In The Book of Daniel the protagonist Daniel's depiction as a cynical. the Old Left of the 1930s and the New Left of the 1960s. Furthermore. but he is nonetheless able to mourn them and to love his new immediate family even as he accepts.but also raises questions as to his own complicity in his society's wrongdoing. in which buses of leftists returning from a Paul Robeson concert are ambushed and attacked by rabid “patriots. But as the novel progresses. first suggested in his participation in the March on the Pentagon and finally in the three endings. The Peekskill incident. Artie Sternlicht represents the ahistorical. In many respects. In the hopes of rescuing his mentally ill sister and silencing the demons in his own head. appropriately descried as a Baudrillard-like simulacrum substituting for the real. The Book of Daniel is an effective political novel because it not only portrays complicit characters. Daniel moves from searching for the truth to searching for an appropriate ritual or way to mourn. He realizes he will never uncover the truth about his parents' case. Groups of people are endangered until the “patriots” find a specific target on which to focus their hatred. Daniel begins a detective-like search to discover the truth about his parents' guilt or innocence. who denies her past and remakes herself in California and Disneyland. The challenges for Daniel and for readers is to acknowledge the burden of history without becoming immobilized by it. ” is a microcosm of what happens in the Isaacson case. but ironically gives no evidence of being more effective against the government than were Old Leftists. The Book of Daniel is about two generations of radicals. opportunistic segment of the New Left that tries to take advantage of the media. in accordance with Barbara J. Two other examples of ahistoricism are Linda Mindish. in Barbara Eckstein's terms. his 293 . The Book of Daniel is the most obviously political Doctorow novel because it represents an espionage trial. but. It also depicts a time of post- war hysteria when outgroups—Jews and communists—were frequently persecuted. Eckstein's theory of the characteristics of good political fiction. it makes readers feel complicit in the wrongs about which they read and thus prompts them to reevaluate their relationship to power structures in their society. Consider. supposedly objective prose of conventional history texts. is marked by a sense of play and easy accessibility. the Boy's fascination with baseball. Ragtime (1975). these lines from the beginning of the book: “Everyone wore white in the summer. for example. entertaining novel is filled with as much social criticism as Doctorow's more jeremiad-like works. imitating the simple facts and characterizations of history books. Tennis racquets were hefty and the racquet faces elliptical. They do so playfully by including information that would not be in history books. the playful prose also underscores important points.” Indeed. These lines parody the dry. challenging novel that would suit a highly intellectual audience. and the image of metamorphosis suggested in the Boy's fascination with stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses. what Bakhtin might call monolingual discourse (60— 61). In some ways Ragtime is then a revisionist history text including those who had been omitted from official accounts. even aesthetic conditions which perpetuate the stereotypes and in turn rationalize the suffering” (32—33). There are two governing clusters of images that structure Ragtime: those of repetition suggested in Ford's assembly line. for in just a few paragraphs the narrator reports that there apparently were Negroes and immigrants— and indeed the novel as a whole bears this out. It is also a novel that toys with the preponderance of illusions in human lives—Houdini's magic. political. Its style has been described as mock historical. There were no Negroes. Both illusion and official history should be reconsidered. such as descriptions of tennis racquets. this apparently light. also often characterized as postmodern. There were no immigrants”(3—4). Ragtime teases out the relationship between these two 294 . a novel focusing on the years 1902 to 1919. It is never right to play Ragtime fast. Playfully. “a network of personal. “Do not play this piece fast. However. especially criticism of race and class inequities. social. While The Book of Daniel is a densely written. A key to the novel's political insight might be summed up by the epigraph at the beginning of the novel. the advent of filmmaking. There was a lot of sexual fainting.own and his society's complicity. changes in gender roles. Tateh and Mother evolve into happier human beings. “The confrontation of the hopes of romance with the actualities of realism runs throughout political fiction . the character choices” Romance dreams are suggested in figures such as Tateh. Emma Goldman and Younger Brother do not strive 295 . According to Michael Wilding. Ragtime is a romance. The novel depicts a period of rapid change in American society—new inventions. new Americanists find the romance an essentially political document. and African-American Coalhouse Walker. who cannot adapt to change. P. conveniently sinks on the Luisitania. The formal polarities arise from the situation.. Characters' potential to thrive in this society is marked first by their ability to adapt to change and second. Grandfather. leaving the novel's landscape. achieving what Mother might call a “life of genius. Father. the transition from a rural to an urban society. and Emma Goldman in the text.. the characters seem to be types representing their ethnic and socioeconomic groups rather than individuals. perhaps more importantly. While an earlier generation of American Studies scholars saw the romance as evading direct engagement with sociopolitical issues. Mameh. Morgan.images. and the girl. Although there are numerous historical figures such as J. and the Boy (whom many believe to be the clairvoyant narrator). more controversial characters such as Evelyn Nesbit. ” perhaps an ultimate form of justice for Doctorow. by their being allowed to change. and Coalhouse Walker. and their baby. questioning how the repetitious historical patterns of injustice and discrimination affect the myth that in the United States people can transform themselves. In the spirit of much proletarian fiction. and Younger Brother vanish from the novel: They either die or their lives are no longer followed. Jr. the advent of the automobile and mass production. his girlfriend Sarah. realism is suggested in characters such as Emma Goldman. Other. As critics have noted. the politics. Father. Jewish- immigrant Mameh. Younger Brother. Tateh. Ragtime's plot centers on three families—a WASP one whose members are simply named Mother. somewhat distanced panoramic view of the era. Sigmund Freud. In contrast. Readers are given a quick. Emma Goldman. He cannot hide being an African-American. he becomes a terrorist. class. cunning. The difference between who is allowed to succeed and who is not is graphically illustrated in the contrasting fates of Tateh and Coalhouse Walker. That Harry K. but is thwarted by racism.for conventional success. and his interest in father- son relationships as mirrors of political issues coalesce in this highly 296 . Like Michael Kohlhaas. often described as a Depression-era inverted Horatio Alger story. While his abandonment of his art and socialist goals is somewhat problematic. the main character moves from poverty to great wealth through his ruthlessness. the character in Kleist's short story on whom this subplot is based. like The Book of Daniel. In Loon Lake (1980). Stanford White's murderer. When Tateh stops being an artist and a socialist activist. but others do. self-made man wants to achieve the American Dream. technological progress is rapid and the quality of life seems to be improving. and luck. he does not destroy others in his attempt to succeed. blends into the American mainstream. Like the history texts it mimics. the prose initially seems to be a surface accounting of events. he hides his former life and his Jewish identity. but rather engages it to bear witness. a proud. and prospers. Coalhouse Walker's only choice is to die with dignity. ironically reinforcing materialist American values by conflating his identity with his car. But this prose actually prompts readers to recognize the social problems and continuing injustice that mark an era when. Each story is true to the “facts” of American history as we understand race. Doctorow's interest in the Depression. Doctorow played more freely with history in Ragtime than in any other novel. Coalhouse Walker. marches in the Armistice Day Parade long after Coalhouse Walker has been shot down underscores the injustice in this society. his skepticism of the possibility of progress. Unable to secure justice when his car is vandalized. and yet the fact that Coalhouse Walker is not a historical character while Evelyn Nesbit is does not make the fates of the two any less real. Ragtime is. Tateh's upward mobility is essentially benign. an effective piece of midfiction because it does not merely accept the primacy of surface. on the surface. Thaw. and gender dynamics in the early 1900s. All men share the same birthdate. for it depicts assimilation rather than radicalization and deals with issues such as complicity and betrayal. and essentially. he goes so far as to tell the younger man “You are what I would want my son to be. Loon Lake examines parallel lives of working-class characters.innovative adaptation of the proletarian novel. and short biographies. the plot line is interrupted with poems. While the 1930s proletarian novel often eschewed experimentation. Loon Lake is a successful adaptation of the proletarian novel in part because it is not formulaic. however. they both survived the dogs' attack. suffers the loss of his soul. and to a lesser extent the parallels of Bennett with both men. it is difficult to determine whether Joe or Penfield is narrating. computer printouts. In conversation Doctorow said that in part Loon Lake is about a man who chooses the wrong father. suggesting several interpretations of events.” Yet 297 . The dryness and lifelessness of such documents are implicitly contrasted with the passion of Joe's love for Clara. Initially. Loon Lake is highly innovative and challenging. and reconfigures a bourgeois plot. it includes many contingencies. The novel might disappoint some dogmatic radicals. a passion which cannot endure in a world that Bennett seemingly controls. in Loon Lake the official biographies reduce the complexities of characters' lives and again remind readers of the drawbacks of official “factual” history. Furthermore. a working-class gun moll who nonetheless becomes a Daisy-esque figure to these men. Penfield does indeed see in Joe a surrogate son. Joe and Penfield were both poor boys alienated from their families. they both fell in love with Clara. While in World's Fair the presence of other voices enriched and complicated Edgar's narrative. Such parallels undercut bourgeois notions of individuality and stress how common environments mold people. focuses on union activity. one of the most apparent ones being the parallels between Joe's and Penfield's life. As a 1970s adaptation of this genre. Ironically. Power is exerted by inflicting physical and sexual 298 . in addition to representing an escapist form of entertainment popular in the 1930s. It is fitting that someone who had always wanted to transcend suffering— one proletarian artistic response—would die in an airplane with a woman who wished she were without a body and would. His bold attempt to live with Clara as an auto worker in a company town Bennett indeed controls might have succeeded had the budding union not been infiltrated by Bennett's spies. Penfield as a poet suffers from a lack of community and a lack of subject matter. disposed of when no longer useful. and graphically describes the rigors of factory work. The image of his body straining in the meditative poses of Zen Buddhism suggests his emotional and intellectual desire to understand and represent suffering. Their common disdain can be understood in part by reference to Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb's The Hidden Injuries of Class in which the authors argue that in a society where everyone supposedly can be middle class. The effectiveness of Crapo Industrial Services represents how difficult it is for solidarity to develop among workers. This act is but one of the inversions in Loon Lake. like her. the shrewd Joe is duped by a seeming hillbilly. The carnival (evoking Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque). Yet Joe tries to build a working-class life. one that again reflects Doctorow's interest in the lines between appearances and reality. as well as a typically Buddhist desire to escape repetitive cycles through death and rebirth into Nirvana. Warren Penfield.Joe sees Penfield. Essentially. as no more desirable than his own parents. Having rejected his father's admonition to write about the workers' lives. is a mirror society of Bennett's lake. die without an heir. a failed poet-in-residence kept at the lake as a curiosity. disliked his own parents. working-class youths often come to see their parents as failures whom at all costs they should avoid imitating. The need to reject one's parents contributes to the ruthlessness and anger that characterize Joe and actually mold him to fit into the oppressor class. People are commodified. he can find nothing inspirational at Bennett's lake. like Joe. like the inclusion of Tateh in Ragtime. Loon Lake thus does not suggest a “way out” of what seems to be bourgeois determinism. policies that Doctorow frequently criticized. While Loon Lake depicts a callous young man achieving wealth through a chance inheritance. like many Americans. but its experimental techniques coupled with its proletarian themes suggest what Barbara Eckstein calls complicities. this biography is a mock biography as Ragtime is a mock history. The public then is not in love with the actual. Billy Bathgate (1989) represents a teen coming of age as a gangster. violent gangsters. the biography also complicates the doppelgänger theme and. humorously legitimizing his crimes. 17 In an interview Doctorow stated that he. indeed replicating his surrogate father's emotionally empty life. suggests the assimilation of immigrants into the American Dream rather than their critique of it. but by their mythic appeal. As in Loon Lake. Despite the information it contains. and Ragtime particularly. but it actually suggests the danger of 1980s social and monetary policies. His adaptation of an American myth in Billy Bathgate harkens back to Welcome to Hard Times. but with their naturalized renegade image. but in Loon Lake vividly represents the values that sustain the current regime and undermine the possibility of such change. Billy Bathgate effectively 299 . was fascinated not by the actual gangsters. cessfully married. Doctorow does not embrace the easy hope of radical change still present in some leftists of the 1970s. and in turn gets back a natural image of it. The Book of Daniel. embracing him as one of the nation's wealthy industrialists who earned their fortunes at the expense of others. We might reflect on Barthes's notion that the world gives myth a historical reality. The book is set in the 1930s. but likely among any readers who wished to sever their roots for upward mobility. Doctorow in this novel uses inversions of the Horatio Alger story and the proletarian bildungrsoman. It lists Joe's hobbies as petit larceny.pain. not only among the characters. Doctorow's eighth novel. most graphically illustrative in Joe's vengeful sex with Magda Hearn. In informing readers that Joe's last name is Korzeniowski. Doctorow adapts a popular genre. manages to attract the attention of one of the crime bosses. Rather. and one who has personally experienced the failure of social institutions. As a novel focusing on a boy trying to escape from the ghetto. As an urban figure living on the fringes of society. a dream that distinguishes him from the cynic and somewhat ironically marks him as an average American. In Billy Bathgate a high-school aged boy. Again. Yet Billy does believe in the possibility and satisfaction of upward mobility. this novel's equivalent of Loon Lake's Clara.” It is reinforced in Billy's simultaneous attraction and intimidation in the presence of the upper-crust Drew. Hence. Dutch Schultz (who was an actual crime boss during this period) and begin a sort of apprenticeship to the mob. In this novel. Billy has some affinities with Sloterdijk's criteria for a modern-day cynic. Billy. Billy has specific traits which will enable him to achieve it—primarily his tolerance for violence and his ability to juggle. an aspiring criminal. the crime novel. Although many may dream of upward mobility. even more than in 300 . First. class is suggested in the sheer number of times Billy says the word in references to “class act” or “real class. the dream of class mobility is represented in the image of Bathgate Avenue with its abundant fruits evoking Schultz's references to wanting the fruits of his labor. 18 dreams of a life beyond the poverty of his tough Bronx neighborhood. Young Billy shows no athletic prowess and states that many of the neighborhood figures were mobsters. Ultimately. Finally. with a tradition that has implications for Billy Bathgate. he achieves this life through crime. it reflects a more cynical society. It has often been observed that in the United States historically there have been two possible quick escapes from the ghetto: sports and crime.engages readers at both levels: the actual in representing violent acts. and some theorists and practitioners might even argue a more criminal society. Unlike the detective novel— which will soon be discussed—the crime novel does not manifest an implicit faith in law and justice. Billy Bathgate is a highly class-conscious novel. whose father has deserted the family and whose apparently mentally-ill mother barely holds their lives together. the mythic through Billy's adulation of Dutch Schultz. Through his cunning and luck. Dutch Schultz is the father he never had. Billy's mother (who is given no name) becomes functional because of Billy's actions. impetuously killing—is when his survival is threatened. however. Reagan's acting. even in the small town.Ragtime. and that in a patriarchal society a mother's job is to police her son: having a criminal son merely literalizes her work. indeed named after. a real character suggests that Doctorow is again playing with the boundaries between fact and fiction. Billy uncovers the gang's fortune after Dutch Schultz is murdered. As heir to Dutch Schultz. even if this support involves criminality. brings to mind the character of Ronald Reagan. exemplifies mutability. To Billy. which. other characters' in this novel. Ultimately. America itself is a “big juggling act” which requires citizens to effortlessly balance many diverse roles without showing signs of strain. Onandoga. Billy's relationship with his mother is likewise crucial. Billy has the ability to blend in with the gang. When Schultz loses his chameleon-like traits—when he loses his temper. moving from urban crime boss to small-town good citizen. is tied to his mutability. Caesar's otherwise provocative analysis ignores the class dimensions of this father-son relationship. Terry Caesar argues that in many contemporary novels mothers are disruptive voices. In this novel the personal/political family dynamics that are crucial in much of Doctorow's fiction are played out in the boy's identification with Schultz. In his death-bed monologue. His mentor. Dutch Schultz significantly calls for this mother. converting from Judaism to Catholicism. Billy is in many ways like Joe of Loon Lake: an 301 . like Billy's. but also an anti-government bias prevalent among many on the extreme right. Dutch Schultz's being based upon. acting itself. Some of the sentiments Schultz expresses about the need to oppose a government that stood against him reflect not only a criminal consciousness. and indeed many Doctorow characters in general. Dutch Schultz. if we look at Billy Bathgate as an allegory of the 1980s. In many ghetto homes fathers are missing and mothers are dependent on the agility and cunning of youth for support. Juggling also signifies performance. Similarly. always in the rackets. transforming the need for thrift into the wish to get rich quick at the numbers” (458). As Dutch Schultz told him. Here Doctorow suggests that praxis is possible and potentially effective against evil people and corrupt institutions. he is an inversion of the protagonist of the proletarian bildungsroman. a person becomes a grotesque when he/she embraces a particular truth (such as economic opportunity) too tightly or at the expense of all other truths. going through the motions of getting an education. and indeed in all his previous novels. In The Waterworks evil is represented as a collusion between science. Again. It would further represent a lure of wealth so great that an essentially good boy is drawn to ruthless crime figures. The text's ending suggests the frightful possibility that crime might indeed pay. 302 . that gangsters were “firm believers in the spirit of capitalism. The end of the novel indicates that Billy has achieved respect by. The Waterworks. and the Savings and Loans debacles.” In their world. we might ponder the extent to which this novel holds up an imperfect mirror to those who lived through the 1980s. depict any possible way the course of events might have been altered. even though as a youth he may have thought he could do so. Donald Pease asserts. as for Sherwood Anderson. This is the spirit that fueled Reaganomics. In Billy Bathgate Doctorow destroys or unpacks the myth that gangsters are outsiders and constructs an image of them as grotesques. Considering Eckstein's theory that good political fiction makes readers recognize complicity. once in the rackets. in a review of this novel. Billy Bathgate does not. Partially that mirror would reflect a failure to nurture. in different ways “The Leather Man” and the Bad Man from Bodie are grotesques of American individualism and unchecked greed. “a different ordering of the relationship between needs and wants prevailed.inverted Horatio Alger protagonist. however. Yet it is doubtful that Billy has escaped the gang life. Moreover. Hence. can be read as a provisional resolution of many questions raised in Billy Bathgate. in a typically cynical fashion. for Doctorow. some of the Wall Street scandals. Doctorow's 1994 novel. Grimshaw.wealth. the layout visually represents interdependence. In essence. As was previously mentioned. and story. “the human capacity to discriminate between false and faithful representations of past reality and beyond that to articulate standards which helped both practitioners and readers to make such discriminations” (261). Its themes share much with a reconsideration of postmodernism examined in Telling the Truth about History by Appleby et al. like The Book of Daniel. The Waterworks also could be considered a detective novel. for it. and government. and ultimately bring Sartorius to justice. has its roots in nineteenth-century American writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. and Emily working together to find Martin Pemberton. the detective novel (a popular genre) typically manifests a faith in reason. Hence. The Waterworks insists upon the importance of community. Sartorius. and justice. there are some “truths” that are indeed verifiable and evident. Furthermore. 20 As did The Book of Daniel. in which the authors uphold. law. this novel is perhaps Doctorow's most effective piece of midfiction. The depiction of a diabolical scientist. The Waterworks insists that although “truth” might be slippery. involves a search for the truth. In addition to grappling with questions of praxis and verity. If you had a major story you ran it to the bottom of column one and took as much of the next column as you needed” (114). As in Ragtime the romance genre is adapted. for McIlvaine iterates that there is no need for papers in village societies in which residents spread news among themselves. Simultaneously. Polarities are represented in Sartorius's destruction coupled with Martin's imperfect recovery. and keep track of all residents. The Waterworks actually represents community action by depicting McIlvaine. the newspaper suggests the failure of community. somewhat similar to the contemporary New York Times: “In those days we ran stories straight down. side by side. The Waterworks certainly exhibits these themes. subheads. and it is again worthwhile to consider new Americanist assessments of the romance. there would 303 . Donne. but one that slants in the direction of determinacy. for example. whose hubris prompts him to violate what many would consider human laws. This is first suggested in the nineteenth-century newspaper's layout. a head. Hence. which swelled as a result of immigration. As important. for the rich and poor lived in relatively close proximity to one another. As was previously discussed. the growth of urban cities was the other. very skeptical about the possibility of scientific achievement. Doctorow imagines a narration. As he did in World's Fair. this post—World War II generation had seen science produce and then been unable to control the nuclear bomb.be no undernourished paperboys or street urchins that populate this novel and indeed populated nineteenth-century urban centers. and exploitation could be easily observed. The Waterworks suggests that determined and rational effort can prevail against evil (if not against all the manifestations of social injustice). albeit ambivalent. less commented upon. and indeed may harken back to more realistic fiction. the settlement of the West. Rather. 21 In cities. however. McIlvaine is a lifelong. The booming decade after the Civil War was the beginning of the Gilded Age (the later part of which was depicted in Ragtime) when the gap between the haves and the have nots widened. As did Conrad in Heart of Darkness. the divisions among a supposedly classless society were especially apparent. great story of the era. In fact. hence. The novel is. and hence in many ways shares outlooks on science described by Appleby et al. While the theme and plot of this novel are relatively determinate. left for readers to consider. The same questions of reliability that marked Welcome to Hard Times are implicit in The Waterworks. Doctorow in conversations about possible influences on 304 . it was far less optimistic than its predecessors about science's potential to improve human life (172). Doctorow strives for an oral quality in The Waterworks. Doctorow came of age in the 1950s. in the aftermath of the Second World War. but philosophical speculations on the reliability of his account do not trouble McIlvaine as they do Blue. one between the elder McIlvaine and a stenographer taking down his remembered tale. the style is decidedly postmodern and experimental. urbanite who remained in New York City rather than follow what was purportedly the great story of the 1800s. According to these authors. narrative gaps are visually suggested in the numerous ellipses. Although Martin is saved from Sartorius and restored sufficiently to marry his fiancée. struggling man rather than the richer. McIlvaine. profoundly altered by his experience. In The Waterworks the theme of failed nurturance is manifested not only or even primarily in Martin's strained relationship. in the name of community values and social justice. Also. but harkens back to Loon Lake. especially in view of the fact that the has no professional affiliations. suggesting. an awareness of which would undoubtedly make one wary of scientific experi ments on vulnerable population groups and prompted him to reconsider the role and limits of science. This choice not only signals Martin's redemption. He is a symbol of the excess that Doctorow. Unlike Joe. he is. in Eva Goldbeck's terms. Sartorius might be seen as a grotesque: a mad scientist or rabid individualist. Like many Doctorow characters. In fact. who struggles 305 . Martin Pemberton is similar to Joe in Loon Lake in that he is given two surrogate father figures—Sartorius and McIlvaine—to choose between. has repeatedly cautioned against through his fiction. for he has so few ties with others. Martin ultimately transfers his affections to the poorer. like Marlow in Heart of Darkness. In The Waterworks pernicious patterns of scientific hubris and political corruption are broken. which is in keeping with Doctorow's view of history's lasting power. but most graphically in the orphan children whom Sartorius exploits. a “way out” of the impasse in that novel: Joe's life might indeed have been different had he chosen another father figure. but they nonetheless leave their mark. It is ironic that Augustus Pemberton trusts Sartorius. his invention of his own name suggests a common American practice of trying to better one's status by changing one's name. a line Sartorius clearly crosses. corrupt one.this novel referred to the Nazi experiments. he is estranged from Martin who risks his life to find his father. The narrator. That he was able to turn normally cynical men into “acolytes” illustrates the persistent power of the con man who plays upon rubes' vulnerabilities. in this case a desire for immortality. to examine the lines between genius and hubris. as well as a communal concern that if “the horror” of Sartorius were to become widely known people would be overwhelmed by the magnitude of his evil. situated in the community. a novel that combines postmodern indeterminacy and stylistic experimentation with an implicit claim that there are some definite truths one should try to discover and that there is possibility for praxis and positive change. That he decides not to publish what was undoubtedly the greatest story of his career possibly reflects his anxiety about accurately rendering this story. stands in juxtaposition to McIlvaine's ruminations of the past. the romance ending. In accordance with postmodern thinkers such as Foucault. Doctorow practices a version of “micropolitics. something along the lines of a novel or a memoir. with its dual wedding and depiction of the peaceful winter city. By accomplishing his desired task. These elements combined help to make The Waterworks a highly effective piece of midfiction. McIlvaine's desire to understand and communicate history is best exemplified in his desire to write something that would transcend mere reporting. 306 .” Action is local. McIlvaine would be breathing life into history in a manner that historiographers have long argued historians must do. apparently frozen in time. does not doubt the hold this history has upon him and his contemporaries. Ultimately then. And yet action is possible.to recreate historical events and their meaning. in individual deeds and work on the self rather than in mass movements of which Doctorow has persistently remained skeptical.