Literature Is the Mirror of Society - Essay Example

Literature Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Natural: The Paradigm of Real and Surreal Transcending the Unnatural 4 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: A Social Stigma Or A Realm With A Different Perception 6 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction Literature is the mirror of society. Human maladies appeal authors, poets and artists, the most. The troublesome psyche and dehumanized behavior agitates the creative minds often. Based on the natural and unnatural trouble of mankind, authors and poets have come forward time to time with their balm to the aching hearts and tiered souls. Malamud’s novel “The Natural” is such a novel, celebrating the league of base-ball players. But far away from it, the novel has transformed and transported itself to a realm where humanity is the greatest asset and celebration of humanity is most important. Malamud is an outright humanist and he dedicated the greatest virtue of mankind to the phenomena called life. Ken Kessey is renowned for his counter-cultural dealings and his work “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is the most celebrated. The tragicomic novel takes place at the backdrop of mental hospital and is a scathing attack on the dehumanized activities of mankind and reminds the thin line between humanity and animosity to its readers which often effaces amidst the hustle and bustle of busy life. The Natural: The Paradigm of Real and Surreal Transcending the Unnatural Malamud stands with his head held high among the American Jewish authors of the twentieth century and leads the cannon along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. He is well known for his incredible documentation captivated in his most celebrated novel about base-ball, “The Natural”. The book became a symbol of passion and life lying behind the game, which transports itself far beyond being just a national emblem and game, to a celebration of mankind. The novel’s publicity compelled Hollywood to adapt the novel and make a film starring Robert Redford. “The Natural” is a marvelous novel and it is unique in its evocative thought, plot, language and presentation. The novel is all about a natural man ditched by his first love. The protagonist, Roy Hobbs recovers the valor and glory in his profession a bit late but when he achieves it, he is at the best of it. Eventually, he gets distracted and betrayed by the person surrounding him or the course of events moving round him. These are all equated with the elements in nature. The novel is unusual for the unnatural perception of the natural. The names of the characters and various objects incorporated in the plot of the novel are allegorical. Their names are deliberately made obscure by Malamud. Malamud intentionally uses super-realism and he beautifully alternates it with realism. The greatest achievement of the novel is that it is the first ever attempt in the history of American Literature that playing of baseball attains a different meaning. Baseball has different significance in the novel altogether and for Malamud the interest does not remain captivated within baseball, it goes far beyond it. He contrives a continued and an elaborate allegory in which the “natural player”, who functions with great ability and ease without any formal training, is put on the same platform with the natural man, who is made solitary by politicians and advertising agencies are skeptical about attaining his final predicament. Malamud’s agenda also reveals in this unusual book through the use of the vernacular passages alternated with redolent and almost poetical way of presentation. In his venture to relate baseball in detail with a culture which made it more vivid, Malamud is uniquely successful. Understanding of “The Natural” is incomplete without the perception of the mythology incorporated in the plot of the novel. The story of Knights Arthur’s Round Table is woven into the main plot in a way that the story becomes complementary to the plot of Malamud. The love for the quest of “Holy Grail” and his fascination for basketball lead him to produce a fantastic story with a rare blend of reality and religion along with the theme of moral responsibility intricately woven into the plot of the novel. Pop, the protagonist of the novel has the holy grail of his own. Winning a pennant is his grail and the team he manages to get in, bears the name quite symbolic to it New York Knights, which reiterates the image of round table and Roy Hobbs is a clear portrayal of the image of Perceval, who similar to Perceval, only had the passion for the game and without even having the slightest knowledge about its entailments joins the game (Sylvester, H., “With Greatest of Ease”). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: A Social Stigma Or A Realm With A Different Perception The great link between the Beat generation of 1950s and that of Hippies of 1960s, the novel is set in the mental hospital of 1950s. The book can be received at two levels. The surface plot bears the theme of an individualist with high degree of individualism who is almost close to become a super-man, becomes the patient of the hospital for a short span of time with a motive of overturning the insensible and the dehumanized ambience of the mental war. But this is just the mere introduction of the protagonist McMurphy and a silver lining only. At the unfathomable depth of the story, the inner voice of the author tries to bring before his readers a commentary and a seminal picture of the United States’ society. The novel has a deep thought beneath. This thought was viewed by the Beat generation of 1950s hopelessly, which is seen as stifling individuality as well as originality. This seminal work by Kessey bridges the transitory gap between the metamorphosis of Beat links of late 1950s and their vision of dissatisfaction of the conventional society and the free love and drug use of the hippies of 1960s. The novel was widely received and criticized but gained considerable scholarly attention during 1970s when an academy winning film bearing the same title was made. The film is often criticized as a sexist and racist piece. But far from all these criticisms, the book relates itself greatly to life and life style of its contemporary generation and speaks a lot about the human values and social inhibitions. The conformist ideas of good and bad, social virtue and vice, is thoroughly challenged in this novel. Yet, the novel is a rare testimony bearing the brunt that an individual undergoes to battle against the submission to the forces of a dehumanizing and demoralizing society (Kesey, “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”). Conclusion Malamud’s “The Natural” and Kessey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, both are written to display certain social stigmas and inhibitions that greatly dehumanize mankind and bring maladies to their lives. Both the works reflect age in their own way and bear the brunt of contemporary stigmas. The novels are didactic and are greatly successful in correcting some misunderstood perceptions and thoughts. The novels are the greatest creations of all time and are widely received among readers and critics. References Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Penguin Classics, 2002. Sylvester, Hary. “With Greatest of Ease” March 12, 2010. The New York Times. 1997. Read More