Great American Novels

One theme we noticed in Grapes of Wrath is the prevalence of some men leaving their families in stressful times. We could also notice this trend in Cold Mountain during the Civil War. Many men deserted the war because it seemed like a hopeless cause. The Confederates even responded by sending out groups of men called the Guard to track down the deserters by any means necessary. Then, during the Great Depression, some men would begin to think their families are better without them: “We ain’t never gonna know if he’s alive or dead. Never gonna know. An’ Connie sneakin’ away. I didn’t give em’ brain room before, but now they’re a flockin’ back” (221). Ma felt her family falling apart. They may never know what will come of Noah and Connie. Noah didn’t feel needed or helpful in their journey and Connie couldn’t take the pressure of having a family of his own in such hard times. Families in Cold Mountain may have felt the same. Some men who ran away from the war might have never returned to their families afraid of the shame of deserting on top of their own guilt. Within two of the darkest parts of US history, many men had to face the chance of letting their families down whether it’s staying with their family or running away from the hardship.

I believe Steinbeck’s techniques in The Grapes of Wrath, are similar to other authors and he doesn’t have many unique or different ways of telling his stories. I do believe he is good at presenting his words in a way that people can follow along and picture each scene and person in their head, but I believe is also like a lot of other authors. I believe he makes people question the meaning of life, and when we are thrown with challenges how we will rise above them, or not. One of the most outstanding quotes in the novel is “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.” Which is a sentence that can be taken in two ways. Either the reader agrees with Steinbeck’s words, and that people have their own choice of how to live their lives, and that there is no defining word of right or wrong, it is just how people react to certain situations. Or there are the people that believe there is something after this life, and sin and virtue are different choices that people can make. That there is a certain code that most humans live by and that there are consequences for people’s actions and life is more than “just stuff people do.” 

Steinbeck titled the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” for more than one reason. The definition of it is an unjust or oppressive situation, that may inflame desire for vengeance. I believe Steinbeck used this title to describe the Dust Bowl era, and how challenging it was for families, but he also used this title for a deeper meaning. He used this title with the hope that readers can be content with the fact that we really don’t know why bad things happen, good things happen, and we don’t really know why we are on this earth. So not knowing, can be an uncomfortable, or unjust situation, but it is how we react to those situations that matter, which is more than just sin or virtue. 

Going into the different writing techniques Steinbeck uses, the way he transfers the chapters between the Joad’s family and the farmers and describing the environment of the Dust Bowl, I find to be interesting. Although it is a little harder to understand and keep track of what is happening throughout the novel with the switches back and forth, this unique way of telling the story I find compelling. I also like how much Jim Casy has a part in the Joad chapters and how Tom Joad isn’t the only the main focus, and not the only character trying to find themselves or their purpose. I do wish that Steinbeck would have gone into more detail or had some chapters dedicated to the younger siblings, and following them through their thoughts and journeys and seeing the other characters through their eyes. 

The ending of the novel is definitely different, which I believe is needed in a novel, especially a “Great American Novel.”  Although I don’t know if I would have used this for an ending, Steinbeck really highlights the humanity part of our world, and how in the end we are all just children. We may have responsibilities, bills to pay, jobs, people to look after, experiences we have gone through, but in the end, we all need each other to live, and we are all children deep down that make mistakes and are never perfect. 

So in conclusion, I believe the Grapes of Wrath, is indeed a “Great American Novel” and I think it brings so many deeper meanings and aspects together to make the reader interpret and truly think about on a deeper level. Steinbeck uses many characters in the story, he breaks up his chapters in unique and different ways, he has a very interesting ending of the novel, and he presents his writing in a professional, but real and easy to understand way. Also, he took a real part of history and turned it into a fascinating and complex story with problems not only of the Dust Bowl, but with characters finding their identity, community purpose, love, and sense of humanity which I believe are all core themes we need in our lives. 

While reading Blood Meridian, I began to notice a pattern that seems to be consistent across Cormac McCarthy’s novels. It appears that the characters and story exist as a means for a broader message to be delivered to the audience. This is a break from the usual formula that most authors use when writing novels; that is, they write a novel to tell an interesting story and nothing more. Their focus is typically on the main protagonist or protagonists as they overcome some hardship. However, McCarthy takes a much less active role in his story. Instead of driving forward a plot in which the protagonists overcome difficulty, he chooses instead to observe characters and how they naturally react to problems. In Blood Meridian, the kid joins the Glanton gang as it wanders the desert looking for Indians to kill for bounty. No Country for Old Menspends much of its story showing Moss’ attempts to evade Chigurgh, only for him to end up getting killed in the least climactic way possible. The Road, follows a father and son as they desperately wander a post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of food and shelter. In all of these cases, there is not a clear and forward moving plot. Unlike traditional novels, there is no mission for the main characters except survival. The characters continuously fight for their survival throughout the entire course of the book; this causes the plot to move in circles rather than a line, as the plot resets every time a character finds him/herself in danger. 

While this may sound like a boring style of writing, McCarthy’s novels keep the reader engaged and interested in the story. In my opinion, this is because the novels are designed to expose humanity’s darker side in a brutally realistic way that most audiences have never experienced before. The characters seem like relatively normal people which allows the audience to relate to them. So, when these characters commit, or are victimized by the intense violence that seems to characterize McCarthy’s novels, the audience is able to relate to it. By doing this, McCarthy reveals how the darker side of human nature is very much present in all of us, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise. This also provides a much-needed break from the traditional heroes of novels that have no flaws and are morally superior to the audience.

Cormac McCarthy uses his stories and characters as a means of getting his message across to the readers. The stories and characters are crafted specifically to be relatable and interesting to the audience so that the message isn’t forced. So, in a way, McCarthy’s novels are simply a creative and interesting approach for him to illustrate his perspective on the dark side of human nature. The characters and stories are interesting because of their realism and relatability, but they are replaceable. Moss for example, appeared to be the main character of No Country for Old Men, but he got killed and the story continued on without any problems. It’s not the characters or even the story itself that gives meaning to the story, it’s the message that it sends to the audience. This is the reason for the repetitive nature of his stories. If they had a linear plotline, they would distract from their true message and the audience would be left with another, likely mediocre, traditional novel experience. Also, the circular plotline demonstrates how humanity never changes or learns from its mistakes; it just continues on its journey for survival. As a whole, I believe that Cormac McCarthy’s style of writing is revolutionary and does an extremely effective job of sending a message to the audience.

In Nathanael West’s, The Day of The Locust, there is a large amount of apathy shown by all of the characters in the book. This apathy is defined by how uncaring all of the characters are towards each other’s problems.

When Faye, a rising actress, is trying to mourn her deceased father during his funeral, a drunk Todd Hackett, attempts to sleep with her. He ends up getting a kiss from her but has to let her go. “Raging at him, she was still beautiful.” (Pg.126). Even during her father’s funeral, Todd cannot control his wants for Faye. Instead of showing sympathy, he gets drunks and attempts to sleep with her. Ignoring her own problems for his own selfish pleasure.

There is also apathy even shown by minor characters. At the end of the book. A riot breaks out after Homer Simpsons brutally kills Adore Loomis mocks him. After escaping the riot Todd finds a group of people watching the riot going on. One man causally says, “This is a riot you’re in,” (Pg183). This causal tone, even with violence raging all around them, shows just how much apathy everyone in this book shows. From Adore Loomis and his mocking of Homer, to Todd objectification of Faye. Everyone only cares about themselves.

During the Great Depression, an era that lasted through 1929-1939 caused lasting impacts on the world to this day. Many families lost everything during this time period. This time also had a major impact on women as well.

            The physiological effect of losing their job and being unable to care for their families caused a large amount of men to abandon their wives and children. Forcing them to fend for themselves, this forced women who were abandoned to be both a caretaker for their children, and a provider as well. Yet, despite these difficulties, many women attempted to keep their families together.

The Grapes of Wrath showed these problems that women suffered through during the Great Depression through the charters Ma and Rose of Sharon. Connie, Rose of Sharon’s husbands ends up abandoning her and their child. Just like many men did during the Great Depression. Ma also attempts to keep the family together throughout the book. When a family friend’s car breaks down, Tom and Al want to stay and fix it while the rest of the family continues on the trip. At first, Ma refuses to leave. Afraid that they will be separated from the rest of the family. “I ain’t a-gonna go” (Pg.184). After a large amount of bargaining, she leaves to boys to work on the car. This mindset that Ma had is similar to many women of that era. Wanting to keep the family together in trying times.

The American author Tom Clancy lived from 1947 to 2013, and published 17 bestsellers, most in his Jack Ryan series. After President Ronald Reagan praised Clancy’s first book, The Hunt for Red October, Clancy’s future books gained widespread popularity, and he wrote until he died in 2013. In this post, I will discuss if Tom Clancy’s 11 book Jack Ryan series should be considered a Great American Novel, using examples from his first and last books, The Hunt for Red October and The Bear and the Dragon respectively. For grading a book a Great American novel. I have three criteria. To be considered a Great American Novel, one, it contains an American setting and American Characters, two, it must grapple with a distinctive American problem or ideal, and three it must be held in high regard by the majority of the “intellectual” population of the United States.

In regards to the first criteria, I believe that Tom Clancy’s novels do contain American Characters and ideals. Tom Clancy’s main character, Jack Ryan, is an American from Baltimore that was at one point a marine, then a stockbroker, a teacher, and finally a CIA analyst. Most of the supporting characters that he meets and works with are Americans. As for ideals, the character of Jack Ryan is religious and for a large portion of the US today, (82%) religion is a part of their lives. For these reasons, I believe Tom Clancy’s novels do satisfy criteria #1.

In regards to the second criteria, I believe that it must grapple with a distinctive American problem or ideal. The one big point of conflict in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series is the Cold War. In fact, it is pretty much the only conflict present in all the novels. At the end of the series, in the last book, The Bear and the Dragon, Jack Ryan is seen as an old Cold War Relic, as to quote “It was a long-standing CIA joke from Ryan’s time in the Bad Old Days of the Cold War.” Although only present in the aforementioned novel, a new conflict appears to the readers. China. The whole novel revolves around a new, “Cold War” with the PRC. Side note, but this is very interesting, as this novel was published in 2000. It seems that Tom Clancy had guessed and written correctly that the US would be in conflict with China in the 21st century. For these reasons, I believe Tom Clancy’s novels do satisfy criteria #2.

Criteria number three is debatable, “three it must be held in high regard by the majority of the “intellectual” population of the United States.” Tom Clancy’s works are seen as very conservative, and creates a bit of controversy over its “greatness.” Also, with the book average word count somewhere around 260,000 words, the pure amount of reading required to finish just one book (not all 11) is outside what many modern day Americans want to read. (Not that some read at all besides their twitter feeds.) Also, while Tom Clancy published his first book in 1984, he published the Bear and the Dragon in 2000, so the series, in my opinion, is very hard to rate a “classic,” because it has only been around for a generation. Another issue is the amount of books, well, they only are as great as the rest. They all are amazing books, but each one really builds on another, so they would all have to be classified as a Great American Series. So I do not pass Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series on the 3rd criteria.

Based on the above argument, even though Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series is maybe of my favorite book series, I do not rate it or any of its singular books as a Great American work. Even though I graded it 2/3 criteria-wise, the 3rd criteria just wrecked any notion of it G.A.N. status. Maybe in a few generations (or a few 100 years) they will be considered a great collection of works, but it is very hard to call any contemporary literature Great American Novels.

The Sun Also Rises is an insightful novel written by Ernest Hemingway. Throughout this novel, the reader can learn many lessons about life. There are many themes in this book that teach the reader and give insight to what life was like after World War I. The main ones being love, identity, and partying.

The first theme I’m going to talk about is love. All of the characters in this book are struggling to find real love. An example of this would be Jake and Brett. Jake, the main character and narrator, is madly in love with Lady Brett Ashley. Brett is unable to commit to Jake and this causes major conflict throughout the novel because Jake is never able to fully get over Brett and will always love her. Brett is the character who struggles with real love the most over the course of the novel . She is in a major dilemma because she ends up liking many guys and has many relationships to balance. At one point she is engaged to Mike, but she also likes Jake and Romero. Also, she spent time with Cohn and all of these relationships make her situation even worse. Not only is this bad for Brett, it causes a lot of drama between the guys because they all love the same woman. At one point, Jake asks Brett if she still likes him and she says, “I’m a goner. I’m mad about the Romero boy. I’m in love with him, I think.” The “I think” that Brett added at the end of the sentence just shows that Brett doesn’t know what real love is because she doesn’t even know if she truly loves Romero. When Brett says this, it’s really difficult for Jake to handle because he wants to be with her. The theme of love is constant throughout the novel and the main characters never end up finding real love. All of them use pointless relationships to fill a void, instead of trying to find actual love.

Another major theme in this novel is identity. All of the characters struggle with self-identity and finding their purpose. They are constantly in a battle with themselves trying to figure out who they are. They all are a part of the “Lost Generation” which is people who came of age during World War I or shortly after. Due to this, they are aimlessly wandering around different countries without a purpose or goal. Even though they all struggle with identity, this battle can be seen clearly through Jake. Jake was injured during the war and was left impotent. Jake struggles with his masculinity throughout because he feels like his injury makes him less of a man and it’s the reason that Brett doesn’t want to commit to a relationship with him.

The last major theme present in the novel is partying. Most of the characters are constantly drinking to excess in order to fill a void and escape the reality of what their lives are like. Jake said, “Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy.” This quote shows that Jake is using alcohol to cope with the war and everything that is happening in his life. All of this drinking allows Jake and his friends to cover up their feelings. When they’re all drunk, they don’t have to worry about their emotions and can just avoid knowing how they truly feel. Robert Cohn is the only one in the friend group who isn’t constantly drinking. Also, he wasn’t in the war so I think this is a way to show the difference between those who were in the war and those who weren’t. It shows how the alcohol is covering up the pain that a character like Jake felt due to the war. The only time the characters are friendly is when they are all drinking. This just again shows how much they all rely on alcohol to escape the reality of their lives.

The themes in this book of love, identity, and partying teach the reader many lessons about life throughout the novel. Also, this novel shows the reader a little bit of what life was like post World War I and how many struggles people in the “Lost Generation” had to go through.

For this blog post, I decided to choose artwork that represents The Sun Also Rises. I chose this image because I think it represents The Lost Generation, which is what The Sun Also Rises is about. “The Lost Generation” became adults during or shortly after World War I. This generation is known for rejecting traditions of older generations. Also, this generation is seen as aimless and don’t really have a direction in which their lives are going. This can be seen throughout this novel because Jake and all of his friends live this lifestyle where they are traveling the world and they’re always drinking and partying. They are using alcohol as a way to cope with all the bad things that have happened, such as the war. Jake, Brett, and the others don’t seem to believe in a lot. They all seem to be lost in some way and don’t really know who they are as people. The characters are always wandering and moving around and don’t stay in one place for very long. They’re all expatriates, away from their home and this makes the reader feel like Jake and his friends don’t belong anywhere. Many of them have jobs in writing, but none of them have a set schedule or a boss and this results in them partying even more. I think through the image you can imagine what “The Lost Generation” was like because the lady is dancing and everyone looks like they’re partying and having a good time.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a story about love and war. The Sun Also Rises explores the post war journey of a group of veterans battling with their physiological demons. The group medicates these demons by traveling around the world, drinking to oblivion, and filling the void with countless relationships. They are all completely unsatisfied with themselves and every character is constantly searching for more throughout life, unable to grasp what more is. Jake is one of the only characters who sees why they are not able to achieve happiness in a conversation between himself and Cohn: “I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another”(19). Noting that in times of confusion one must look inward. One of the biggest takeaways from this novel is that self love is the strongest love of all. Jake strives for something outside the realm of materialistic goods because he sees that his current way of life is only digging him a hole harder to climb out of. Jake confronts spirituality a few times throughout the course of the novel as he characterizes himself a lousy Christian; although, he eventually finds himself in a church in Pamplona, Spain. During a strange, rambling prayer to God the reader sees that Jake is the only one who is trying to connect with something of a higher power to give his life meaning. 

The characters were a part of the Lost Generation, an unfulfilled generation coming into maturity during a period of instability. Also characterized as the disoriented, wandering, directionless spirit of the survivors in the early post WWI period; the war destroyed many of the ideals of the generation. So, this novel follows the attempts at trying to piece together old ideals in new circumstances. Each character is in a constant trial and error battle; for Mike, staying sober did not help his cause, so he remains drunk for the entirety of the novel. Brett is involved in constant fleeting relationships with people unable to let herself love possibly as a defense mechanism to her previous abusive relationship. Jake so desperately loves Brett and drops everything to be with her again and again, even though they will never be together. 

This book tells the story that sometimes what you are looking for in life does not come in the package you had hoped for. Jake does anything for Brett and he is the only person she trusts, however he will never have her. No one in this story has any sense of self identification or direction in life because everything they had known before was ripped away at the hands of the Great War. 

The Sun Also Rises also gives an insight to the past. This novel depicts the raw truth of the world and what it was like for the Lost Generation to struggle. The novel sheds light to the realities of life; it is a novel with cheating, war horrors, money and gambling problems, debt, and alcoholism. A time where people needed to rebuild what they stood for. This novel teaches the reader that only those who have the capacity to look inward on themselves will be the ones to come out of the period of darkness. Hemingway does give us a ray of hope at the end. When Jake tells Brett “isn’t it pretty to think so?” the reader is inclined to think that he has started to put himself first and to realize that Brett cannot make him happy and perhaps he will start to move on. 

With the conclusion of The Road, there are many unknown factors that McCarthy leaves the readers to think about and analyze. “Carrying the fire” was an often phrase the man used when talking to the boy. When the man dies, the boy is left to “carry the fire” which in my opinion I believe it means to carry on the good that is left in the world. The man is telling the boy to be a good person, and carry on the good memories and history the man taught him. Also with the ending of the novel switching to talk about brook trout and valleys, I believe it is the man’s last way of “carrying the fire” because I believe the last paragraph of the novel is the man’s thoughts and remembrances of life before the apocalypse. This ending concludes the novel almost like a dream. The whole novel was also told like a dream, in a slow and specific way but distant, and giving the readers the ability to remember certain things, but not all. 

With dreams being the only way for the man and the boy to escape their reality, it highlighted the importance of memories and experiences. It also alters our sense of reality, as the whole novel itself was told like a dream. In one of the man’s dreams with his wife on the beach, in that moment he thought to himself that “If he were God he would have made the world just so and no different.” which shows he had an appreciation of life, and I think that was one of McCarthy’s most important messages throughout the novel. Also, I believe that McCarthy wanted the readers to stop and think about what is really real in our lives, and what the purpose of life even is, or if in fact, we are living in some kind of dream.