The Post-War Era the Anxiety Age and Social Responsibilities - Essay Example

? The Post-War Era, the Anxiety Age and Social Responsibilities: 1945-1975 The post-war period was one of significant confusionand anxiety, where social responsibilities were being refined, established and shaken up. Aspects of society that had remained unchanged for centuries were now being shaken up, much to the dissatisfaction of many of those in authority. Different authors approached this topic in varied ways, and changing social and cultural aspects had a significant influence on how this theme was presented and how it changed. A large part of social responsibility that changed from one author to the next and through time was whose responsibility was being addressed. This paper will examine different focuses and authors of this area throughout the post-war period. Anxieties were prevalent in American life and literature from the end of the Second World War into the twenty-first century. This reached its peak in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. At this time Auden’s poetic vision of an enemy standing in plain view among us, had been crystallized by the popular mind by Pogo, Walt Kelly’s comic strip character, whose words rank among the most famous of the age: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” This line was a paraphrasing of a message originally given during the 1812 war (Axelrod, 2008, p. 42). Poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) made use of different literary approaches and themes. In We Real Cool (Brooks G. , 1959b) and The Bean Eaters (Brooks G. , 1959a), Brooks conveys meaning not through sloganeering, but rather through deft characterizations, description, implication and a highly flexible verse form. Brooks has written in traditional forms, such as a sonnet, adapted the ballad and Chaucerian stanzas, drawn from traditional blues structures, and used unrestricted free verse. This gives her significant flexibility in her writing and what she is able to express. In 1999, Adrienne Rich wrote: Her work ranges from exquisite satire to lamentation; from precise microcosmic narratives of the human condition to apocalyptic meditations. She has accorded heroic stature to the lives of women in the African American community, while never ceasing to speak for and to that community as a whole. Her poetry holds up a mirror to the American experience entire, its dreams, self-delusions and nightmares. Her voice is inimitable (Rich, 1999) In her collection The Bean Eaters, Brooks did not focus on personal subject, instead she chose to address a wider topic, the growing despair and alienation that African-Americans were feeling during the time of the poems’ authorship and publication. The title The Bean Eaters may derive from the painting by Vincent van Gogh, titled The Potato Eaters. Like Brook’s poems, this painting strongly focuses on despair and the way a group of people were alienated from the rest of the world. In van Gogh’s painting, the people were peasants, in Brook’s work they were people from her own race. Many of the poems that were part of the collection focused on the unsuccessful efforts made by the black community to escape feelings of hopeless through methods such as racial integration, reckless living, materialism and religion. As well as these more personal stories, Brooks also describes a number of national events. One of these poems focused on an event in 1955, where a black teenager named Emmett Till was murdered, allegedly because he was flirting with a white girl. The boy was 14 at the time (Tyson, 2010). Brooks continued her focus on social justice with the production of the anthology Selected Poems, which contained many of the poems that were present in the collection The Bean Eaters, as well as some new ones. For example, the poem Riders to the Blood-Red Wrath, Brooks speaks highly of the group known as the Freedom Riders, as well as others that were involved in the movement for Black Civil Rights. This trend continued in Brooks’ collection In the Mecca, which had less focus on irony and humor, and instead had strong political subjects and tone. This change towards a more serious approach was one that would continue throughout Brook’s later works. Overall, Brooks was a very powerful voice for the black people in the 1950s and the 1960s, and is known as one of the most important African American poets for the 20th century. She was the first African American writer to ever win a Pulitzer Prize, which she obtained for her second poetry volume, which was published in 1949 (Green, 2010). A powerful literary figure that emerged around the same period of time was Sylvia Plath. Brooks and Plath were very different than one another in terms of background and cultural influences, but also because of their writing style. Plath’s writing was of the form confessional poetry, and many of her poems focused on emotions that she felt herself. Notably within her poems were references to her struggle with depression. One of Plaths most well known works was her novel, The Bell Jar (Plath, 1999), which was published after her death. The Bell Jar is a semi-autographical novel that follows a young woman suffering from depression and her interactions with the world around her. Plath died in 1963 after suffering from a renewed bout of depression, which led to her committing suicide (Perkins & Perkins, 2009). While Brooks’ writing focused on political objectives, Plath’s work was about internal desires and emotions. Nevertheless, both women were similar in that they were something that society did not understand, and were condemned because of this. For Plath this was because depression was not understood or accepted at that time and for Brooks because she was African American and seeking civil rights. Published in 1963, The Feminine Mystique (Friedan, 2001) was a highly controversial bestseller written by Betty Friedan. One critic argued that it was "The book we have been waiting for the wisest, sanest, soundest, most understanding and compassionate treatment of contemporary American woman's greatest problem...a triumph.". This boast was included in many of the printed versions of the novel. Friedan had a strong educational career, but felt dissatisfied with the roles that were available for women. The term mystique was used to convey how hopeless women feel as there are repressed in society and must be dependent on their husbands financially, intellectually, and emotionally (Eisenmann, 2002). Like Plath and Brooks, Friedan was strongly speaking about a particular group in society that was mistreated. Through the works of Brooks, Plath and Friedan an emerging and changing theme can be observed. All three women felt mistreated in society, and made use of different writing techniques and styles to make these feelings known. These expressions were strongly linked to society itself at this time. For Brooks, civil rights for African Americans were becoming a significant issue, while Friedan’s time saw the stirring of the woman’s movement. In contrast, Plath’s condition was not one that was shared by a large number of people, and her writing was mostly inwardly focused. During the post-war period, anxiety concerning social roles continued to be a significant component of writing and popular thought. Works Cited Axelrod, A. (2008). America out loud. Avon, MA: Adams Media. Brooks, G. (1959a, September). The bean eaters. Poetry Magazine, p. 375. Brooks, G. (1959b, September). We real cool. Poetry Magazine, p. 373. Eisenmann, L. (2002). Educating the female citizen in a post-war world: competing ideologies for American women, 1945-1965. Educational Review, 54(2), 133-141. Friedan, B. (2001). The feminine mystique. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Green, L. (2010). A Movement without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Post-war Philadelphia/Making a Way Out of No Way: African American Women and the Second Great Migration. Journal of American History, 97(1), 228-229. Perkins, G., & Perkins, B. (2009). The American tradition in literature (concise) (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Plath, S. (1999). The bell jar. Great Britian: Harper Perennial. Rich, A. (1999). Adrienne Rich on Gwendolyn Brooks. Retrieved May 24, 2012, from Academy of American Poets: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15897 Tyson, T. (2010). Black power in Dixie: A political history of African Americans in Atlanta. Journal of American History, 97(1), 230. Read More