Workbook Engagement and Reflection - Essay Example

? Introduction Modern literature depicts the cultural ethos of modern times. Modern sensibility is faced with the problem of identity and deterioration of the traditions and values that were cherished by the people of the past. Man in his quest for existence comes across the issue of coping with the world around him. The institutions like family are no more helpful for him as the individual spirit in him has estranged him from social constructs. He is also at a loss to deal with the appetites he is born with. The clash of individual with society is also a recurrent theme in modern literature. The novels chosen for analysis portray the dilemmas of modern man: dealing with the problems of sex, racism, identity crisis and breaking family ties. The novels like Nightwood, Invisible Man, Passing and Sound and Fury though thematically encompass different domains, yet all of them present modern sensibility and its issues in a very beautiful narrative style. We can see that in all the stories individual is trying to come to terms with the world around him. Before embarking on spiritual journey into the souls of characters like Benjy, Jason, Quinten and others, it seems pertinent to deal with the notions of modernism and modernities. Modernism The term “ modernism” refers to that works of art, music and literature that were produced during the first part of the twentieth century’. Modernism’s first problem is its lack of demarking clear-cut chronological boundaries. We can not say for sure that such and such period can be put into the category of modern era or the cultural constructs of such and such period deserve the title “ modernism”. But Shepered(2000) declares that there seem to be‘ consensus that the period between 1885 to 1935 can be put into the domain of modernism in Europe specifically’ (page 1). Modernism encompasses multifarious themes like disillusionment, individual’s struggle with society, sexual perversion and spiritual hollowness etc. Man’s too much indulgence in materialism is another popular theme of modern writers. Themes depicting the plight of women in modern world also come into the compass of modernism. Whereas modernism sounds as an epithet synonymous with some kind of movement, modernity denotes a sensibility or an attitude through which we differentiate our present time with other periods of time. Modernity then is a temporal/historical concept by which we refer to our understanding of the present in its unique historical presentness, that is , in what distinguishes it from the past, from the various relics or survivals of the past, and also in what it promises for the future— in what allows us to guess, rightly or wrongly, about the future and its trends, quests, and discoveries(Calinescu,1993, pp.1-20). After giving a brief definitions of concepts of modernism and modernity, we will analyze some modern American novels which depict modern sensibilities at its best. Sound and Fury is a novel written by Faulkner with certain stylistic experiments in narrative techniques by extending the dimensions of stream of consciousness techniques to new horizons. Sound and Fury: a story of disintegrated family Sound and Fury depicts the story of a family that is facing an utter chaos in their lives. The family ties are at the verge of breaking. The parents of the family instead of bringing their children closer and strengthening the bond of family are trying to find escape in religion and liquor. The family seems to be under some sort of ‘curse’ which is stopping them from restoring balance in their lives. The writer seems to have given the sense of chaos even through the narrative technique. The style of narrative is innovative. The story has been told in first person narratives of three members of Compson family. Interestingly the first part of the story is told by an ‘idiot’ of the family Benjy whose life was dependent on the much loved girl of the family named Caddy who in the end brought shame and disgrace to the family by becoming a virgin mother. In his account we can find the promiscuous nature of his sister and his wild behavior. Benjy has no sense of time and his narrative is actually a net of rambling events suggesting the impressions that are imprinted on the mind of this retarded brother who loved his sister very much. He is hurt when he has foggy idea of his sisters’ promiscuity and her abandonment of home. The idiot mourns the loss of Caddy in the following lines: “He went and pushed Caddy up into the tree to the first limb. We watched the muddy bottom of her drawers. Then we couldn't see her. We could hear the tree thrashing”(1.498) Caddy put her arms around me, and her shining veil, and I couldn't smell trees anymore and I began to cry. (1.507) No less love is shown by another brother named Quinten for his sister Caddy. Quten represents the hope of family for better name and fame as he has been enrolled in Harvard where he is going to pursue higher studies. This child unlike Benjy seems to have promising prospects. But he too is obsessed with his sister. The boy’s reaction towards his sister’s unwanted pregnancy is weird and so is his confession of an imaginary incestuous relationship with his sister. Another son of the family with shrewd sense of materialism appears as a contrast to all other romantic individuals of the family. But even the worldliness of Jason is not helpful for him to restore the fortunes of the family. Time is an important theme in this play as the writer has given the chapters’ names according to time though the time has not been presented in chronological order. All the characters have their own sense of time and have particular relationship with time. Benjy being an idiot has no coherent sense of time. He rambles from present to past without finding any coherent link between the events. Linearity of time is incomprehensible to him. On the other hand Jason has a clear sense of time and he is man of present. The presentness of time makes him channelize his energies according to that end. He is materialistic guy who is bent upon making his present good. Quentin is a man of past as his life is deeply connected to the blissfulness of past and his nostalgic escape to past makes him uncomfortable with his present. There is another viewpoint which according to some critics reflects author’s viewpoint on time. Dilsey represents another view of time. Hers is a historical view. She embraces all of her life experiences and those of the Compsons with a religious faith about the timelessness of life. Her view most closely reflects the author’s viewpoint on time. By having the novel cover four days, each section representing one day, Faulkner is able to use time to give the novel a tight framework( Novel Summeries and Analysis, para 1). The chaos in Sound and Fury makes all the characters to rethink their identity in a new perspective in order to bring about order in their personalities. The novel Passing shows takes this crisis of identity to new heights by depicting the dilemma of those blacks who are undergoing the process of passing. They are trying to get rid of their past identity and are adopting new white identity in order to be socially acceptable. Passing: Identity Crisis Figure 1 Passing of black person adapted from http://www.tiffanyraecoaching.com/reverse-passing-are-you-serious/ Larsen’s novel passing is the story of the people who are in search of identity. The very word passing connotes to the attempts of those African American who pretended to pass or become white. “Passing is the novel’s title and most obviously refers to an African American pretending to be white; this is the most obvious reference because the characters in the novel use this term frequently when describing this act”( Lahey,2008,page 2). The novel revolves round the theme of passing and seems to be criticism of those who try to be what they are not. A multitude of characters in the novel undergo the process of passing in many ways. The protagonist’s main conflict is passing. The black past seemed a stigmatic living that led them assume a pretended facade in the form of ‘ white’ people. That obsession is so great that it makes people like Gertrude and Clare to have no more Children as they feared that the Children may have ‘ dark skin’. The novel actually exposes the failed attempts of all these characters to ‘ pass’ as none of them is successful to get away with their past. Novel is written with racial undertones where some characters like Jack pass racial comments to embarrass their audience. The concept of identity involves knowing oneself completely. It is a sensibility that includes all-inclusive understanding of one’s hidden desires that shape our identity. The crisis occur when in the pursuance of our desires we fail to find out our true self. Nightwood depicts this dilemma of individual in the modern world. NightWood: search for bliss Nightwood: a pathetic story of love adapted from http://depositphotos.com/2059448/stock-photo-Lesbian-love.html Nightwood depicts the story of a woman who is search of a blissful living. Robin Vote is unable to have sustainable relationship with anybody. Her first encounter with a pretended aristocrat Felix culminates their marriage. But the relationship soon reaches at the verge of break-up when Robin realizes that the Baron’s interest in the marriage was just in having a heir for his family. He wanted to carry on the family name through this expected heir. After the birth of a son, Robin feels that it is difficult for her to keep on this relationship. Therefore she flees to America and their tries to find solace by having a relationship with a Woman named Nora Flood. The Women at first seem to get along well. Both the women move to Paris. But this relationship does not last long as Robin again feels disillusioned and indulges in unscrupulous living by spending nights in the company of strangers to look for the bliss she is seeking. Nora hopes to get her lover back but all her hopes vanish when Jenny enters Robin’s life and succeeds in winning her love. This thing grieves Nora who in an attempt to make up the loss tries to build relationship with a person named Dr. Mathew. The lovers’ reunion seems possible in America where Nora spies Robin in a Church before the altar but an accident makes this reunion impossible. The abrupt ending of the novel leaves the questions to be solved by the reader. Individual’s desire to assert one’s identity in a society make him expect from others acknowledge his existence in the society. When we feel that we are not duly understood by the society, we feel that we are not visible by our fellow beings. Invisible Man: search for identity Invisible Man is also a story where the protagonist complains that he is not visible by his fellow men. Although he clarifies that the visibility in question is not physical rather it is the spiritual and moral incompetency of his fellow men that they are not able to see him. Identity The main issue of the play is that of identity. The invisibility is actually the result of gap between perception of self and the society’s concept of that self. The protagonist in the end prefers isolation in order to understand himself in a better way. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me (Prologue 1) The problem of identity in “ Invisible Man” adapted on March 24,2010 from https://guardianproject.info/2012/03/19/on-verifying-identity-using-cryptography/ Race As the narrator is a black American, the novel seems to be another comment on racism in American society. I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed. About eighty-five years ago they were told that they were free, united with others of our country in everything pertaining to the common good, and, in everything social, separate from the fingers of the hand. And they believed it. They exulted in it. They stayed in their place, worked hard, and brought up my father to do the same (1.2). Invisible man is another novel written on racial issues depicting the plight of blacks in American society. That man lives like an invisible man in a city like New York. “Invisible Man is unique not only in the literature world for its improvisational jazz-inspired style, but also in the political world for adding a new voice to the discussion about blacks in America” ( Shoomp editorial team, 2012). But the writer of the novel was actually not writing a novel based on racist theme. Rather he was concerned with questions of existence which were quite higher than the issue of ethnicity. The writer was not a propagandist and this thing earned criticism for the writer. “Invisible Man, in its efforts to transcend the confines of racial labeling, was criticized by those who wanted to keep those labels in place and use them as the impetus for political action”(Shoomp editorial team, 2012) Conclusion It is quite a task to delineate the whole thematic range of all the above mentioned novels in such a small space. It is only possible to touch only the prominent aspects of these writings. All the above given novels are few instances that show narrative innovation in American literature to depict a complex experience of the modern American individual who is trying to come to terms with his times and climes. References AYERS, D. (2004). Modernism: a short introduction. Malden, MA, Blackwell BOONE, J. A. (1998). Libidinal currents: sexuality and the shaping of modernism. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. SAX, B. (1996). William Faulkner's The sound and the fury. Piscataway, N.J., Research & Education Association. VOLPE, E. L. (2004). A reader's guide to William Faulkner: the short stories. Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press. ANDERSON, J. P. (2002). The Poltergeist in William Faulkner's "Light in August". [Boca Raton, Fla.], Universal Publ. LARSEN, N. (2004). Passing. Mineola, NY [u.a.], Dover. WALL, C. A. (1996). Women of the Harlem renaissance. Bloomington [u.a.], Indiana University Press. HAUBOLD, K. (2011). Nella Larsen - African-American Artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Mu?nchen, GRIN Verlag GmbH. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:101:1-20110314730. HILL, M. D., & HILL, L. M. (2008). Ralph Ellison's Invisible man a reference guide. Westport, Conn, Greenwood Press. CALLAHAN, J. F. (2004). Ralph Ellison's Invisible man: a casebook. New York ; Oxford, Oxford University Press. (2005). Literature. New York, Sparknotes. SHEPPARD, R. (2000). Modernism, Dada, postmodernism. Evanston, Ill, North Western University Press. BERG, C. (1995). The turn of the century: modernism and modernity in literature and the arts = Le tournant du sie?cle. Berlin [u.a.], de Gruyter. http://www.novelexplorer.com/the-sound-and-the-fury/themes-25/ Matei Calinescu. (1993). Modernity, Modernism, Modernization: Variations on Modern Themes. symploke. 1 (1), 1-20. Novel Summaries Analys. (2009). Themes. Available: http://www.novelexplorer.com/the-sound-and-the-fury/themes-25/. Last accessed 2nd April,2012. Read More