A Great Relationship between Poetry and the Fiction - Essay Example

? Poetry Vs Fiction Poetry Vs Fiction A great relationship exists between the poetry and the fiction that were written between WorldWar I and World War II. Most of the literature that was undertaken during this period had one thing in common - war. The themes of these poems and fictional works revolve around the nature and the environment under which the soldiers were fighting, narrating the hardships that they experienced and the sacrifices they made to ensure they defended the interest of the people back in their home countries. Most of the poetry and fiction addresses the feelings of the soldiers at the battlefront. They narrate how they missed home and how they wished they had not gone to war. Additionally such poetry and fiction depict different perspectives and feelings of those who were back home, who fully supported the war and called for the brevity of the soldiers (Gray, 2004). However, as presented by these fiction and poetry, the trauma and agony arising from the war could only be understood well by the soldiers and their families, since such factors affected them directly. Thus, the literature between the period of World War I and World War II was characterized by literature styles that combined symbolism, satire, strong voice and comic language, to describe the events and the consequences of the war (Campbell, 2008). Most interesting is the captivating descriptive style that such poetry and fiction were written in during this period; it depicts the influence of the war on the social, cultural as well as the political structures of the modern society. Poetry and fiction of the period between World War I and World War II reflect the same issues, being influenced by the same trends and outside forces. The relationship between poetry and fiction is well established, mainly in the themes and the styles applied by such literature. The poetry and fiction of this period majorly handles common themes. Among them is the theme of war, where the devastating effects both physically and emotionally are expressed by the poetry and fiction (Campbell, 2008). By applying The Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway as an example of fiction and My Sweet Old Etcetera by E.E. Cummings as an example of poetry written during this period, the theme of war can be clearly identified. While the fiction tackles the life of a traumatized soldier trying to cope and come to terms with life after the devastating effects of the war he experienced as a soldier, the poetry handles the experience of another soldier, still in the battlefront (Gray, 2004). In the poetry, the soldier is thinking of his family at home, mostly about his sister who prepared warm clothes for him to go to war, yet she did not understand what exactly the battlefront was like. His father also insists on the value and honor of dying in brevity as a soldier, but he still lacks the real experience and the comprehension of the trauma that the soldiers are going through. Thus, under poetry, the theme of war is represented by the feelings of discontent that the soldier has while in the battlefront and the lack of understanding by his family back at home about the war and its direct consequences to the soldiers. The fiction depicts the theme in a different manner, where the soldier recuperating from the trauma and horrifying effects of the war that he experienced tries to depend on nature to have it heal the feelings (Campbell, 2008). Thus, the poetry and the fiction are used to portray to the society the feelings of the soldiers, on how they were badly affected by the war. This way, the society learns to understand the negative impacts of the war, not from the observable financial and political strain and costs, but from the psychological and the human feelings perspective, as represented by the soldiers. The poetry and fiction relates in the way they present the theme of nature. Considering the example of the poetry applied in this case, the theme of nature is advanced in a manner showing how the environment under which the soldiers are fighting in the war is intolerable and even worse. To illustrate this, the soldier talks of lying quietly in deep mud, to refer to the muddy conditions of the trenches and the bunkers in which the war was being fought. The same theme is advanced in a different manner, where nature is used as a refuge for the traumatized soldier to heal and overcome the traumatizing effects of the war. Though the theme is presented in a contrasting manner, the basics remain that nature is a crucial aspect of the war and its aftermath (Gray, 2004). There is also an aspect of the poetry relating to the fiction during this period, mostly related to the styles that were applied in both poetry and fiction. Symbolism is a dominant style applied in both forms of literature of the period, to represent different incidences and most significantly the feelings about the war (Campbell, 2008). The river and its environment such as the fish and the flowing water is used in the fiction to symbolize the healing and overcoming pain that the soldier experienced after going back from the war. The swamp, which the soldier is trying to avoid at all cost in the fiction, is applied to represent to the war front, due to its devastating and traumatizing effects (Gray, 2004). The black grasshoppers in the fiction are representative of the effects of the war, where the war has damaged everything and changed the nature of life from the normal state to a state of destruction, as the hoppers have all changed from having yellow, red, and green colors to becoming all black. The same style can be traced in the poetry, where the soldier talks of the deep mud, to represent the bad state of the fighting environment in trenches and bunkers, which they experienced (Gray, 2004). Both the fiction and the poetry apply strong voice, which serves to create more interest to the events in the literature, leading to better understanding. Satire is also applied to depict the difference in understanding of the actual nature of the war by the soldier experiencing it directly and those back at home who simply yearned for victory at the expense of the lives of their countrymen (Campbell, 2008). The poetry of this period is influenced by Jazz. This serves to make the events and the incidences narrated by the poetry appear interesting and bearable, even though, in the real sense, as directly experienced by the soldiers in the battlefront, the incidences are unbearable (Gray, 2004). Without the influence of Jazz on such poetry the narration given by the poetry would be too hard for people to read, as the incidences, the environment and the settings under which the poetry emanates is of a devastating nature. As indentified from the poetry used in this case, where this is war poetry, the writer has applied a lighthearted language to represent how there is a lack of understanding of the conditions of war by people back home. Additionally, the effect of Jazz can be indentified in how the writer represents the environment under which the soldiers are fighting. The application of the lighthearted language, an element of Jazz style, makes the poem interesting, regardless of the fact that the writer represents the chilling and devastating conditions of the war (Campbell, 2008). If a hard, direct language could be applied to represent the same message, then, the poem would not be interesting for people to read. Fiction written during this period, on the other hand, is influenced by other forms of prose. To create new modes of communication during this period, the novelists sought to adopt other forms of prose (Campbell, 2008). This served to move the literature written during this period to a greater height. For example, the fiction applied in this case depicts how the writer adopted an essay like structure in developing the short story. The writer concentrates on only one subject, the fictional soldier, narrating all his events after reverting from the war front (Gray, 2004). The writer applies simple style that is appropriate to narrate the bloody events and experience he garnered from the war, while serving as a driver. The use of such form of prose served to reinvigorate the whole genre of writing of the period, which was picked up by other writers, giving the literature written during this period some uniqueness in the style of presenting the events and experiences of the war. This style was most appropriate, since most of these writers had not developed clear and complex writing skills. This way the style afforded them a suitable platform to transmit the information and experiences they held to the world (Campbell, 2008). The application of narration and complex sentences became one of the features of literary writings during this period. The fiction of the period adopted other forms of prose, to give a more worldview of the war incidences, with less of their personalized opinions. References Campbell, M. (2008). The Early American Novel: Introductory Notes. Literary Movements. Gray, R. (2004). A History of American Literature. Blackwell. Read More