Classical Realism - Raymond Carvers Elephant - Essay Example

RAYMOND CARVER'S ELEPHANT: HOW IT DIFFERS FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ICAL REALISM Introduction This paper attempts to ascertain how the 'dirty realism of Carver's Elephant differed from nineteenth century classical realism. With this objective, it is imperative that realism in Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' and Dickens' 'Great Expectations' be used to compare with that of Carver's Elephant. It may be asserted that Carver's genius for forging meaning out of usual chaos of otherwise meaningless and directionless lives is a literary capacity that brought him to become characterized as one of the most influential short story writers in the United States during the 20th century.1 Elephant is a collection of short stories by Carver which includes the following: Boxes, Whoever Was Using This Bed, Intimacy, Menudo, Elephant, Blackbird Pie, and Errand. Carver used a "dirty realism" technique in presenting his thoughts in these short stories, "a North American literary construct born in the late 20th century where the narrative is stripped down to its fundamental features."2 A derivation of minimalism, dirty realism is present in most of the author's literary works, one essentially characterized by a focus on surface description and an economy of words. This literary genre is present in Elephant as it tends to eschew adverbs and allow context to dictate meaning.3 In minimalist stories, just like that of Carver's, the characters tend to be featured as unexceptional beings through the use of meaningful contexts and through incorporation of adverbs.4 Dirty realism is generally seen as a hallmark of Carver's Elephant as in the rest of his works. Dirty Realism and Classical Realism Setting out the differences between Carver's dirty realism and 19th century classical realism, the latter focuses on a broad category of artistic styles attempting to merge or combine classicism and realism in textual presentation. It is likewise broadly defined as "the faithful representation of reality", a literarily technique practiced by several schools of writing. Realism takes interest in scientific method, rational philosophy, and a reaction against the classic romanticism.5 It emphasizes "the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence."6 The combination of classicism and realism seems to be an oxymoron, as classicism tends to idealize the subject matter while realism tends to develop a reaction against the idealists.7 The 19th century realism tends to have a remarkable and monotonous agreement in main features. There is an excessive use of minute external detail, alongside with viewing the vaunted objectivity and impersonality as a faade for immorality and cynicism, neglecting the ideal. As rapid industrialization and urbanization take place, an expanding population and a rise in middle-class affluence provide an abundant ground for literary explorations, which is often regarded as "a strategy for imagining and managing the threats of social change."8 With Madame Bovary, the term was clearly established in France. Dickens was likewise held as "a novelist of the ideal or romantic school, welcoming the wholesome spirit of realism."9 As a dirty realist, Carver's objects are conveyed with a representational quality which may not be described as metaphorical, universal, or direct. His dirty realism is characteristically represented through truth and a depiction of commonplace events, characters, and settings. It considers characters and events which are very ordinary and uninteresting, attributing meaning and value to them.10 In his Elephant and Other Stories, he presents everyday objects in a realist, descriptive manner, with relevance to their relatedness in the syntax of sentences and the 'world' of the story.11 Intimacy, a story in the collection, suggests a constant fascination with animate objects with the character's expression of inexplicable things through the medium of objects depicted in the text. The story revolves around a man and his ex-wife who invites him over to her house. Both indulge themselves in an emotionally charged conversation, in which the text was dominated with direct speech. The title Intimacy is emphasized through integration of few commonplace objects like a blouse, a skirt, and a table. To further illustrate, the knife in Intimacy reminds the couple of a memory when they were still together. In Boxes and Elephant, Carver depicts a forlorn solitude of broken relationships in which people stand fixed and are made to have a connection with a telephone, another day-to-day object which the author renders meaning. In Menudo, these objects are incorporated within the text to demonstrate a powerful meaning, as in this verse: "...a jar of metamucil, two grapefruits, a carton of cottage cheese, a quart of buttermilk, some potatoes and onions, and a package of ground meat that was beginning to change color. Boy! I cried when I saw those things. I couldn't stop."12 Dirty realism is demonstrated in Elephant through the subordination of words to gestures with the depiction of commonplace animate objects, which are nonetheless resonant with emotional significance.13 Carver's use of objects in his Elephant may be described as one that balances the multi-faceted meaning of unimportant objects and their defining effects that are made "exotic" and "mythologized" within the text. Communicative experiences between characters and objects are generally found in Boxes, Whoever Was Using This Bed, Intimacy, Menudo, Elephant, Blackbird Pie, and Errand. Comparison With Dickens's 'Great Expectations' and Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' Carver's dirty realism in his Elephant is not the same as realism portrayed by Charles Dickens in his Great Expectations. The dissimilarity lies in the fact that Dickens uses Gothic conventions, satirical, and melodramatic stances not normally associated with realism, in conveying societal realities. In Great Expectations, realistic conventions are challenged through an aim of intermixing genres and changing strategies to portray truth or realism in a different way.14 The story depicts aspects of the penal system and the conditions of prisoners, which does not use any of Carver's techniques in dirty realism, such as the use of commonplace objects that possess textual meaning. Its ending somewhat departs from realism with an intention to involve romanticism, by portraying a couple (Pip and Estella) who need to be together to live a happy life.15 In Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert scandalized its readers and caused a chain reaction that set off the author's persecution for immorality and obscenity. This persecution made Madame Bovary into becoming the forerunner of the realistic novel, with the use of influential and prevalent literary genre. The courageous depiction by Flaubert of Madame Bovary mirrors a significant unraveling of realistic social desires of a woman who finds dissatisfaction with her own state of living and environment and who consistently finds them from men whom she finds attractive, interesting, and wealthy. In a traditional French society during the mid-19th century, this approach to writing was not acceptable and was considered taboo, since society at that time was accustomed to romanticism as a writing genre. The depiction of Madame Bovary is in itself Realism, but not the same as (dirty) Realism in Carver's Elephant. There is no emphasis on designating textual meaning to commonplace objects and connecting them to the intentions and desires of the characters. Rather, Flaubert focused on the bigger picture, the larger scenario, in putting forward the hidden desires of Emma Bovary. Some of the plots in the novel were no longer considered shocking or scandalous when Carver's Elephant was written (divorce between husband and wife, different desires of couples, etc.) Carver's realism has then taken off from the kind of realism conveyed in Madame Bovary, which was the forerunner of the concept in the first place. From merely depicting hidden desires and relating them to the larger society, Carver uses commonplace objects and breathes meaning unto them to signify relatedness to the characters or situation, which is not present in Dickens' Great Expectations and Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Conclusion The 19th century classical realism and Carver's dirty realism differ in a myriad of ways, although the latter obtained its origin in the former. Carver's dirty realism may be considered a literary reinvention in terms of designating textual meaning for a pursuit of giving noteworthy attention to common objects which do not normally play a significant role in a person's life. Carver intends to give a strong connection between his characters' desires and aspirations on one hand, and certain commonplace objects on the other hand- knife, skirt, hem, table - and by doing so, he is able to make his textual contents an exotic one. This is however not present in the works of Dickens and Flaubert who were both in a period wherein Realism had just started (especially in the case of Flaubert who made himself the forerunner of the concept). Both Madame Bovary and Great Expectations, however, adhere to the real sense of realism, and although Carver may differ on how the concept is portrayed, the intention to reveal real insights and desires in contextual social construct is the same as the two novels which were both conveyed in realistic inkling. Carver's dirty realism in Elephant is however an extension of classical realism, whose motive is not only to reveal truthful and real intentions of a social dimension. Rather, the usage of commonplace objects is a modification in order to give color and meaning to characters and situations. Endnotes: Read More