The Elements of Modernism - Essay Example

William Faulkner’s "That Evening Sun" and Modernist Ideology Georg Lukacs (1885-1971) states that for precise depiction of reality, one should go beyond outward appearances (Selden cited in Brizee, 2000) because only then, the inner conflicts prevalent in the society become visible.  These inner conflicts have been aptly described by William Faulkner (1897-1962) in his short story "That Evening Sun" (1931). This short essay shall analyze the above work, as an example of the modernist ideology, and try to understand the elements of modernism present in the work and the inherent class struggle found in the story. Black – White Conflict Faulkner was influenced by Sherwood Anderson, a fellow American short-story writer and novelist (Bryer, 1974, p.230) to write about the everyday difficulties faced by individuals (Barnwell, 2002, p.5). Faulkner used the underlying tensions of Afro-Americans and the dominant white society in many of his stories to achieve this. Inevitably, his themes always included the natural conflict between the good and the evil, the old traditions and the modern present. This work is set in Jefferson, with a mix of black and white characters. Elements of Modernist Ideology One common feature found in modern literature is the ‘fragmentation’ of the narrative, or the story containing different perspectives of the events described. In this work, Faulkner has given the reader a glimpse of not only Quentin Compson’s view of the events, but he has also described the interrelationships between him and the other characters in the story. For example, Quentin of the Compson family recalls fond memories dating back fifteen years of Nancy Mannigoe, the family’s washer-women. She is transparent to Quentin (and to the readers) and he is able to see “her fear and her humanity in a way that no member of the Jefferson community does” (Branwell, 2002, p.83). Thus, through her feelings, Faulkner describes the other side, the plight of the blacks, and gives voice to the suppressed (Urgo, 2001, p.191). Furthermore, in many of Faulkner’s characters, one can find that darkness not only symbolizes the color of the skin, it also significantly reflects the low position of the community in the social strata (Branwell, 2002, p.8). The tensions that arise due to classes in the society, is typically modernist. Faulkner’s story covers different time-periods within the plot. The story opens with the narrator in the present, in modern Jefferson, where “Monday” was no longer any “different from any other week day” (Faulkner, 1931: part I). The time-period changes soon, into a segment of time fifteen years earlier, when he, his brother and sister were growing up in the Jefferson surroundings. Some issues like conflicts of color and identity, race and class, have all undergone change within the story itself. One can understand the differences in “Quentin as unenlightened narrator” (Peek, 2004 p.1) at the beginning of the story, and in Quentin as child, as described in the latter parts. Indifference of the Modern Society The indifference with which Nancy’s community is treated, is touchingly brought out in several places by Faulkner. For example, in the description of the law officer, he is shown as scolding her for lack fo refinement, rather than feeling sorry for her attempts to commit suicide; the disapproving tone used by the Compson children, "I ain't a nigger" (Falukner, 1931: part II); and her own apathy in "I hell-born, child….I won't be nothing soon" (Falukner, 1931: part II). Faulkner discovered newer methods to paint the mentalities of people and their “divisive actions which create and institutionalize class and race difference.” (Branwell, 2002, p.83) Faulkner also describes the utter lack of feeling of the Compson family, towards the troubles and agonies experienced by Nancy. Despite having full knowledge that she lives in mortal fear of her Jubah’s anger, they hardly make any attempt to safegaurd her, or console her, except for the lame remarks of Mr. Compson of Jubah being away. However, Nancy herself is very sure that Jubah is hiding in the gutter nearby, ready to pounce on her and kill her. The readers are made acutely aware of her dread, and feel sorry for Nancy as “all of a sudden water began to come out on her face in big drops, running down her face…” (Faulkner, 1931: part III). However, there is absolutely no feeling of sympathy, not even a show support for her, by the Compson family. Faulkner has admittedly done this with the intention to point out that, “…that this Negro woman who had given devotion to the white family knew that when the crisis of her need came, the white family wouldn’t be there” to support her (Faulkner in the University of Virginia cited by Branwell, 2002, p. 71). Indeed, the children of the Compson family are seen arguing each other, as usual, when the story ends, showing that the problems of the black women did not matter to them. Conclusion William Faulkner was one of the greatest American story-tellers. His sensitivity and powerful portrayal techniques leave the readers with strong and deep impressions. His works show elements of modernism, upholding human values, and describe the drastic consequences that may occur if the values die away, and That Evening Sun is a good example of this. Bibliography Barnwell, Elizabeth Janet. (2002). “NARRATIVE PATTERNS OF RACISM AND RESISTANCE IN THE WORK OF WILLIAM FAULKNER.” University of New Orleans. Pp.1-212. Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. Brizee, Allen (2000) “Georg Lukacs (1885-1971)” in Marxist Literary Criticism website Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. Bryer, R. Jackson. (1974). Sixteen Modern American Authors: A Survey of Research and Criticism. Duke University Press: Durham, NC (1974): 230. Faulkner, William (1931). “THAT EVENING SUN GO DOWN”. In Anthology of Thirties Prose Electronic text retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. < http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/White/anthology/faulkner.html> Peek, A. Charles (2004). "That Evening Sun(g): Blues Inscribing Black Space in White Stories” Southern Quarterly,  Spring 2004. Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. Urgo, R. Joseph. (2001). “Faulkner” in als.dukejournals.org Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. < http://als.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/2001/1/187.pdf> Imagism in T. S. Eliot’s "The Journey of the Magi" Introduction Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) was the Bishop of Winchester, who is portrayed as holding a tiny booklet in his hands, (Howse, 2004, p.1) has a special place in the world of literature. One day he gave a sermon on the special journey undertaken by the ancient magi and remarked “A cold coming we had of it, / Just the worst time of the year…” Little would he have known that these words were soon to be immortalized by the poet T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) The poet used them as the opening lines of his poem "The Journey of the Magi" (1927). It is considered to be one of his poems symbolically announcing his conversion to Christianity. He was baptized in the Anglican-Catholic church, in a privately held ceremony and initiated into the faith (Wohlpart, 1996). The poem is said to be the first of many other poems, that Eliot clubbed together to form the Ariel Poems (1927), and was published some time after his initiation. This essay shall give a brief account of the poet’s life, and analyze the imagism in this poem, wherein he uses the journey undertaken by the three ancient, wise, men from the east, as a metaphor for his own life’s journey before his conversion into the faith of Christianity. Brief Biography Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on 26 Sept. 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Champe Stearns, as the youngest of seven children. He suffered from a congenital condition of double hernia, and thus was doted on by his sisters and mother. He attended the Smith Academy and later on Harvard University where he studied comparative literature and English literature. He also studied Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, and pursued the studies of Sanskrit for sometime (Bush, 1999). On completion of his studies at the Harvard University, Eliot left for Oxford, England, in 1914, to study in Merton College. He married Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1915. They lived in London for some time; unhappiness and misunderstanding, ill-health marred their marriage and Eliot himself suffered a couple of setbacks in his health over the years after his father’s death. Though his marital life was in shambles, he progressed spiritually. Turning to religion, he sought to find a solution his ‘alienated’ feeling that was so evident in his works like The Waste Land (1922). He became famous as a poet and in 1948 Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. In the last decade of his life, he chose to marry Valerie Fletcher (1957) and found relative happiness in marriage (Ackroyd, 1984, p.13). He breathed his last in London in 1965, and the words "In my beginning is my end. In my end is my beginning" mark his epitaph (Bush, 1999). The Three Segments of the Poem The poem Journey of the Magi (1927) according to some analysts signifies the state of transition or change in his mind, from his old faiths and his new faith in Christ (Behr cited in Lombardo, 1996). The poem discusses the hard and difficult travel undertaken by the Magi – three wise men of the Magi who belonged to a section of Medeans of Persia (www.magijourney.com), and his group. Initially they almost doubt the worthiness of the journey, and then they come to meet with the new born baby Jesus, and finally, the poem becomes personal, in the voice of the poet (“we” becomes “I”) and announces the death of old religions, with the birth of his new faith, symbolizing his converted state of mind. The poem can be roughly divided into three parts. In the first part, Eliot describes in detail the profound difficulties faced in “such a long journey” (line 3) and that when the “weather” was not very comfortable, during the “very dead of winter” the “worst time of the year” (lines 1- 5) as he calls it. They suppress a nagging doubt, a voice in their ears that their journey was a “folly,” and travel through heat and cold, with “sore-footed” camels, and camel-men “cursing” and “grumbling”, they go through “hostile” cities (lines 6-20). The second part describes their entry into the place of His birth symbolically indicated by “And three trees on the low sky” (line 24), albeit after a search, because there was “no information” (line 29). However, they reach the place in the “evening, / not a moment too soon” and their meeting with the new-born itself is described as “satisfactory” (lines 30-1). The third part and the most important one, describes his personal state of mind after many years, “All this was a long time ago, I remember, / And I would do it again” (lines 32-3), his readiness to undertake another such journey –which he initially found arduous. He indicates his realization in the form of a question and answer, “This: were we led all that way for Birth or Death?” (lines 35-6) He questions himself if they were made to undertake this difficult journey, just to witness this birth or, was it because some-things had to undergo death? He then answers his question that it was not an ordinary birth or death; he describes a very different kind of birth and death, both of which are painful the death of primitive gods, which he had believed in, so far (lines 39-46). For him, death of was attempting to hold on to the old gods and faith. Imagism in the Poem Using ‘journeying’ as a metaphor, Eliot brings in the image of the difficulties and perplexities that he has himself crossed like the magus, to meet with Christ (his baptism). One is reminded of the sense of ‘alienation,’ the hopelessness and absolute disillusionment that is so predominant in Eliot’s Prufrock (1917) and probably he is referring to this feeling of ‘alienation’ when he describes the perplexities faced by magus in their journey; in short, he is one of the magus himself, undergoing a new transformation; the poem actually discusses "two journeys... the arduous physical journey and then dramatizes the even more difficult and incomplete spiritual one" (Barbour, 1988, p.193). Furthermore, ‘alienation’ is employed as a technique to highlight the dramatic quality of the poem, and draw a parallel to the Magi’s journeying through death and birth, crossing the desert with faith to see Christ, and his own cycles of conflicts of religions, and ultimately the death of his “old dispensation” and the birth of Christ, when he converts to his new Faith (Braun, 1996). Dean (1979 cited in Dixon, 1996) gives an account of the major images and symbols of employed in the poem. The image of “hostile cities” may pertain to the places of conflict, and discontentment; while the image of "temperate valley" signifies three important happenings of Christianity viz., the rising of the Christ form His tomb, His return from the Eastern direction, and according to Wohlpart (1992, p.57) it also signifies the new life that is obtained through performing penance. The image of the Crucifixion is brought about in “three trees on the low sky” (line 24) (Barbour 1988, p.195). Conclusion Eliot uses imagism to effectively support his metaphor of a journey to witness the birth of Christ and death of his old gods and faiths. By highlighting the difficulties of the journey of the Magi, he strives to bring out his own experiences and his subsequent conversion that leads him to peace. Bibliography Ackroyd, Peter. (1984). T. S. Eliot: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. P.13 Barbour, Brian M. (1988). "Poetic Form in 'Journey of the Magi."' Renascence: Essays on Value in Literature 40 (Spring 1988): 189-196. Braun, Rena. (1996). “Journeying Towards Affirmation of Faith: A Review of Criticism of T. S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi"” Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. < http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/eliot.htm#review%202> Bush, Ronald. (1999). T. S. Eliot: A Study in Character and Style. New York: Oxford UP, 1984. Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. Dixon, James. (1996). “T. S. Eliot's "Journey of The Magi" with anchors for the primary symbols and images” Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. < http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/eliot.htm#Poem> Eliot, T. S. (1927). Journey of the Magi. Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. Howse, Christopher (2004). “The Insides of a Private Diary” in the Daily Telegraph dated May 15, 2004. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group. Lombardo, Alice. (1996). “T. S. Eliot's Struggle and Conversion: The Making of "Journey of the Magi" Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. < http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/eliot.htm#biography> www.magijourney.com “Journey of Magi” Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. < http://www.magijourney.com/ancient.html> Wohlpart, A. James. (1992)."The Sacrament of Penance in T. S. Eliot's 'Journey of the Magi.'" English Language Notes 30 (Sept. 1992): 55-60. Wohlpart, A. James. (1999). “T. S. Eliot "Journey of the Magi"” Electronic article retrieved on Feb 15, 2007. 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