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THE QUIET AMERICAN
The novel is essentially political and it brings forward the most important problem in the progressive bourgeois literature of om days- the problem of choice. For the first time Greene strongly condemns the sordid laws of colonia lism, presents the truth of the American colonial policy. The plot of The Quiet American is centred round a murder It is not a detective novel, for the theme is profoundly political. The action of the novel is set in Vietnam in the
1950s, when the country was a French colony
The "quiet" American Pyle is employed in the American
Economic Aid Mission, but his real duty is to arrange various acts of sabotage and provocation, trying to accuse communists of them and paving the way for the growth of American influence.
His antagonist is Fowler, an English newspaper corre-
spondent. fowler is not young, he is unhappy in private li fe, disillusioned and tired. His creed is not to get involved in anything. Fowler reports only what he sees, trying to be indifferent to everything. I3ut sooner or later one has to make a choice, and Fowler does so. He begins to help the people of Vietnam in their struggle against the French troops.
The extract below taken from The Quiet American
describes the aftermath of the explosion organized by Pyle
... We were among a congregation of mourners. Thr police could not prevent others entering the square; they were powerless to clear the square of the survivors and the first-comers. The doctors were too busy to attend to the dead, and so the dead were left to their owners, for one r; own the dead as one owns a chair i\ woman sat on the ground with what was kft of her baby in her lap; with a kind of modesty sh<.> had covered with her straw peasant hal. She was still and silent, and what struck Ill(' most in the square was the silence. It was like a church I had once visited during Mass- the only sounds came from those who served, except where here and there the Europeans wept and implored and fell silent again as though shamed by the modesty. patience and propriety of the East The legless torso at the edge of the garden still twitched, like a chicken which has lost its head. From the man's shirt, he had probably been a trishaw driver
Greene is a contradictory writer; theoretically he is noncommittal; in his works, however, the characters are forced to take sides, or to make a choice, in the political struggle.
The novel Doctor Fischer of Geneuu, or the Bomb Party
(1980) disclosed a new aspect of Greene's literary skill This relatively short work contains a sombre satire on the modern bourgeois world. It exposes the overwhelming
power of money and the limitless lust for it in the rich.
Greene's novels are characterised by a great force of
conviction, concreteness of description and precision in rendering characters and situations. These, as well as the wide scope and preoccupation with the most urgent pro
blems of the day, make Greene one of the most prominent writers of contemporary world literature.
I. What two major groups can Greene's works be divided into? Narne some of llis novels. 2. Speak about the plot of The Quiet /iml.'rican
3. What is the theme of the novel Doctor Fischer of Gcner. a? 4. What can
you say about the peculiarities of Greene's style
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SNOW
(1905-1980)
C. P Snow is one of the most outstanding realistic writers of 20th century's Engi<Jnd.
He W<JS born in Leicester in 1905, the second of the four sons. Snow's father was <J clerk in a shoe factory. Charles was educated in Alderm<Jn Newton Gramm<Jr School, where, in the sixth form, he specialized in science. Later he worked as a laboratory assistant at the same school, while studying for a university scholarship. At Leicester Univer sity College in 1927 he took a First Glass Honours degree in chemistry After that he worked on molecular physics and became a Fellow of Christ's College in 1930. When World War II broke out, Snow joined the Civil Service and was engaged in selecting scientific personnel.
Alongside with his public activities Snow devoted him self to literature. His first novel was a detective story Death Under Sail (1932).
Literary fame came to Snow when in 1940 he started
publishing <J series of novels under the general title of
Strangers and Brothers.
In took him more than a quarter of a century to finish his work comprising eleven novels, the most important ones being: The Light and the Dark (1947), Time of Hope (1949). The Conscience of the Rich (1958), The Affair (1960), Corrridors of Power (1964). His last novel of the series was finished in 1970, it is called Last Things. The title of the series came from the title of the first novel,
Stangers and Brothers (1940). It is about George Passant, a qualified clerk in a solicitor's firm. His strong perso nality makes him the focus of a group of young people who follow him. The life of George Passant is tragic; he is an idealist, who believes in man and society, and the ability of man to live in freedom. But his best dreams are frustrated and life shows its darker side.
The title ot the series is highly symbolic People arc "strangers" if they live alone, isolated from their envi ronment. But there is something uniting all of them. griefs Clnd sorrows, happiness and joy which make all of them "brothers" The limits ot fhese notions are yery frail. for today's "strangers" may become tomorrow's "brothers" and vice versa. Thus the main problems of all the novels are as follows: what makes people brothers? What should a man do to survive in a hostile world?
All these novels are united by one main character,
Lewis Eliot. Through him Snow set out to examine;111d portray the life of an English man in the post- World War I years. Eliot is clearly a man of modern society he is ambitious, anxious to gain comfort and power He un derstands that to achieve these he rnust struggle and compromise.
Snow is realistic in his description of the vast laby·
rinths of a bureaucratic society where the individual if he has no guidance, has to look for the way out himself He is a master of the social portrait, too. In his series of novels he creates a gallery of typical representatives of all the strata of contemporary society
TIME OF HOPE
The most important novel ot the series, poss1bly the key one, is Time of Hope, which helps the reader to understand the most subtle aspects of Eliot's psychology In this novel Lewis Eliot tells his own story of his childhood, his hopes and dreams. Eliot comes from a lower middle-class family possessing great ambitions and aspirations. His mother's strongest desire is that her son should do well and rise in the world.
Time of Hope is a novel of self-discovery It 1s in love
that Lewis sees the deepest relationship between human beings. However, first in his love for his mother and then in his love for his wive he realizes that he was wrong. His mother, vain and pompous, yet passionately anxious for his
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future success in life, loves him without restraint, but he is unable to respond in the same manner The possessiveness of her love makes him weak and uncertain.
After his mother's death his ambitions take an unex pected turn. He gives up his job in a local government office and takes up law. He is quite successful. But by the time he is 28 he understands that he has not achieved what
he wanted and that his career has been ruined by his un
successful marriage.
Thus, in Time of Hope, as in other novels, Snow in vestigates the problem of ambition. Ambition, according to Snow, is a part of man's nature, but in weak characters it turns merely into desire for success. This is what happens to Lewis Eliot. At first his ambition seems to be no more
than an ordinary wish for fame and success. Later he un derstands that this is not enough. Snow's merit as a critical realist lies in the fact that he shows very convin cingly the evolution of Eliot's character, the change in his outlook on life and his attitude towards the world. By the end of the novel Lewis Eliot has discovered what is wrong with the society he lives in and that gives him some hope, for he understands now what he is to do.
The following extract, taken from Time of Hope, tells of
Eliot's last meeting with his mother
... My mother's head and shoulders had been propped up by pillows, in order to make her breathing easier- so that, asleep or awake, she was half-silting, and when I drew up a chair that Sunday morning, her eyes
looked down into mine...
Then she said, heavily: "I don't want to stay like this. Just like an old sack. It wouldn't do for me, would it?"
Fur once, I found my tongue. I told her that she was looking hand·
some.
She was delighted. She preened herself like a girl, and said: "I'm
<::lad of that, dear"
...1 tried to console her I!old her that, whatever I did, I should carry my chidhood with me: always I should hear her speaking, I should re· member the evenings by the front-room fire, when she urged me on as a little boy Yet afterwards I never believed that I brought her comfort. She was the proudest of women, and she was vain...
A new stage in Snow's literary career began with the publication of Corridors of Power (1964). It presents a gal lery of people governing Britain and responsible for its fate and policy, its manipulations in the field of atomic energy,
the struggle of different parties for power, for the manufac
ture of rockets of a new type.
The novel starts with the events of 1955 when the Con servatives came to power, and develops further during the Suez campaign. Together with Eliot who reached the hig hest place on the social ladder, the reader visits Parlia ment, listens to the speeches of its members, becomes
a witness to lobby talks. The central figure of this novel is a young politician, Rodger Quaife. Being a sober-minded realistic man, he understands well the absurdity of Britain's participation in the productiort of nuclear wea pons. He wants to reach the post of prime-minister in order to prevent the cuuntry from any such action. But realistic ideas are doomed in a country whose political leaders do not think of the people, but only of profits and military advancement.
Corridors of Power is a fine work of critical realism that clearly shows the policy of the leading capitalist countries.
Snow's last novels are A Coal of Varnish (1979) and
The Physicists (1980). !lCoat of Varnich is a detective
story. It centres round the murder of an old aristocratic lady Yet it is not a novel merely of entertainment. Snow
exposes the hypocrisy, falsehood and immorality of the upper class of England which are concealed under refined manners and elegance. Sncw's novels are remarkable for their imaginative power, their vivid situations and precise
recording of political events. His main interest lies in
showing the inner world of the sharacters. The structure and the plot of his works are always subordinated to two
important points: politics and private life.
I. \\'II; lllc writer's task. accordill!-: to C. P nowl 2. Exptai11 tile idea contained in the title of C. P Snow's series of novels Strangers and Brothers. 3. What is the subject of the novel Time of Hopel 4. Why is C. P Snow's novel Corridors uf Power considered a masterpiece of critic! rcalisml 5. What do the novel A Coal of Varnish exposel
"THE!lNGRY YOUNG MEN"
The English literature of the 1950s tended to relied some of the difficulties facing the younger generation of the time.
Disillusionment and scepticism had become the main
features of the young post-war generation. Those young-
sters stood up against bourgeois morals, protested angrily against reality and tried to find new aims in life. The literature of the 50s reflected the "anger" of the voung. The writers who dwelt on this problem became known as "the angry young men"
The representatives of this group were Kingsley Amis,
John Braine, John Osborne, John Wain, and many others. These young writers did not put forward a definite pro· gramme that could unite them. They did not even consider themselves as belonging to the same trend. What made them a group was their "hero" They all chose for their main character an intelligent young man from the lower middle class; he had a university education, but was unable to find his place in a society that was suffering from class contradictions.
Thus the characters in the novels and plays written by "the angry young men" were a true-to-life reflection of post-war English society and the thoughts and hopes of the young people of England. They showed the bitter disap pointment of the young people who graduated from "red· brick"* universities, but because of the growing unemploy ment could not even find proper jobs and worked as sweet shop managers, window-cleaners, hospital orderlies, chauffeurs. This disillusionment and disbelief in the future made them feel betrayed and lost and brought about their angry protests against everything and everybody. The weak point of the protests lay in their futility. The reb ellion of the "angry young men" would not have been so fruitless, if they understood what it was directed against. All their attempts to fight the existing order got them nowhere. It is interesting to note that the works of the "angry young men" appeared in different genres of Eng lish literature- in drama, prose and poetry.
• "Red-brick" Universities are situated in provincial towns. They were built after World War II, and in comparison with such ci\adels of con servati m as Oxford and Cambridge are more democratic.
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(1929-1994)
John Osborne was the initiator of the new trend in drama. His play Look Back in Anger (1956) not only presented a typical "angry" character but also laid the foundations of the new English drama, which was later called the "New Wave Drama"
John Osborne was born in a suburb of London where he
lived with his family till the early years of the war He was educated in a boarding school in the West of England. He left school at the age of 16 and worked for a short while as a journalist. Then, quite by chance, he went on the stage. For some time he acted in different provincial theatres. In the early 50s he was invited to become a member of the
English Stage Company in London. This company later staged his play Look Back in Anger.
In 1956 John Osborne became a playwright, after that he wrote a number of plays, such as The Entertainer (1957), The World of Paul Slickey (1959), Inadmissible Evidence (1964) and many others. In them he satirised the foundations of the British capitalist society, its laws and traditions.
His play A Sense of Detachment (1973) tells of the tragic fate of an artist in the bourgeois world. Osborne is
known to have said once: "I don't like the society I live in. The more I live the less I like it I am sure the theatre can become a decisive weapon of our time" These words
convey the great role which the playwright ascribes to art,
to the drama in particular.
LOOK BACK IN ANGER
Look Back in Anger reflected the life of post-war youth. Those were the people who received an education but could not find their proper place in society.
The title of the play gave the name to the whole liter
ature of the "angry young men" The setting of the play is in the Porters' one room flat, in a large Midland town. The audience was invited to look into a plain, but entirely real world. The gas stove, the chest of drawers. Jimmy Porter sitting in an arm chair reading a paper, Alison, his wife, ironing in the middle of the room- it was an instantly recognizable scene.
The action of the play can hardly be called action for there is very little of it. Indeed, the play might well be and has been- called Jimmy Porter's monologue. Jimmy's speeches disclose the main idea, while the other characters are like small pieces of mosaic, that fill in the picture of Jimmy's life and make us understand the reason for his revolt against society
From the age of ten Jimmy has had enough trouble to be angry. His father took part in the war in Spain where he fought on the side of the republicans. He came back wounded and, for a year, suffered the agony of a slow death. Jimmy's mother abandoned her husband and her son. The boy was the only person who listened to his fa ther's stories about the war. From that time Jimmy has hated the bourgeois class his mother belonged to because she and her family were unable to understand his fat Pr's tragedy and the reason why he had gone to Spain. The girl Jimmy falls in love with also belongs to this class. In spite of the disapproval of Alison's parents they get married but he still feels lonely and discontented.
Jimmy Porter, like his creator and like so many other people, hates the established order but wants to fight his personal "class struggle" within his own family His retreat into his own inner world, however, makes him a self-pitying egoist, an idealist without a cause. Jimmy Porter raises his voice against any form of aristocratic pretence, against religion and the H-bomb, but at the same time his protest achieves nothing. Though Jimmy is in telligent, sensitive, energetic and willing to offer his enthu siasm and energy to society, he finds that he is not wanted.
Jimmy graduated from a university but he has to lead the drab, uninspiring life of a salesman in a small sweet-
stall. He is disgusted with the people's indifference, their apathy and lack of interest in anything. He looks back to the 30s when people, like his father, fought for noble ideals: for the abolition of fascist dictatorship, for freedom of thought and action, for the right to work. In the contempo rary world he sees nothing to fight for.
Jimmy's anger, his bitterness, his hysteria and his cruelty come from his demand for recognition. That is why much of his "anger" is turned against Alison, his wife. His life becomes a continuous attack on Alison because of their lack of mutual understanding. He destroys their love and she leaves him. However, at the end of the play, Alison
returns to Jimmy. They are together again. They play some fantastic game, he in the role of a bear, she- of a squirrel, and try to find in it some sort of escape from reality into their own, very lonely world.
The play was a tremendous success. Jimmy Porter was recognized by his own generation, not as a hero, but as a reflection of life itself. The young generation took his troubles very much to heart. Look Back in Anger was their life and their style of living. The play was about them and they accepted it.
Some critics compared Jimmy Porter with Hamlet "in a smaller and domestic setting" The comparison is good,
because Jimmy is a modernised Hamlet, he also "sees something rotten in the State"
The following extract from the play Look Back in Anger
clearly shows Jimmy's ironical attitude to everything
which surrounds him.
....Jimmy (quickly) Did you read about the woman who went to!he mass meeting of a certain American evangelist a! Earls Court? She went forward. to declare herself for love or whatever it is, and, in!he rush of converts to get to the front, she broke four ribs and got kicked in the head. She was yelling her head off in agony, but with 50,000 people putting all they'd got into "Onward Christian Soldiers", nobody even knew she was there. (He looks up sharply for a response, but there isn't any.) Some times, I wonder if!here isn't something wrong with me. What about that
lea?
C I iff (still behind paper). What tea? J i m my. Put the kettle on...
Jim rn y God, how I hate Sundays! It's always so depressing, al
ways the same. We never seem to get any further, do we? Always!he same ritual. Reading!he papers, drinking tea, ironing. A few more hours, and another week gone. Our youth is slipping away Do you know that?
C IiI I (throws down paper). What's!haP
Jimmy (casually). Oh, nothing, nothing. Damn you, damn both of you, damn them all.
C IiI L Let's go to the pictures. (To Alison.) What do you say, lovely?
A I is on. I don't think I'll be able to. Perhaps Jimmy would like to go. (To Jimmy.) Would you like to)
Jimmy. And have my enjoyment ruined by the Sunday night yobs in the front row? No, thank you. (Pause.) Did you read Priestley's piece this week? Why on earth I ask, I don't know. I know damned well you haven't. Why do I spend ninepcnce on that damned paper every week? Nobody reads it except me. Nobody can be bothered. No one can raise themselves out ol their delicious sloth. You two will drive me round the bend soon- I know it, as sure as I'm sillin!f here. I know you're going to drive me mad. Oh heavens, how I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm- that's all. I want to hear a warm, thrilling voice cry out Hallelujah! (He bangs his breast theatrically). Hallelujah! I'm alive! I've an idea. Why don't we have a lille game. Let's pretend that we're human beings, and that we're actually alive. Just for a while. What do you say? Let's pretend we're human. (He looks from one to the other). Oh, brother, it's such a long time since I was with anyone who got enthu siastic about anything...
The "angry young men" disappeared from the English literary scene in the late 50s. Each writer went his own way. Some of them became reconciled with the existing world, others followed the realistic method enriching and improving their artistic mastery. However, the "angries" occupied an important place in the literary evolution of England as they reflected the first post-war revolt of the young writers against the bourgeois way of life.
I. What can you say about the "angry young men" as a literary trend? 2. Why did the trend soon disappear from the literary arena?
3. What was the dramatic innovation in Osborne's Look Back in Anger?
4. Why was Look Back in Anger a tremendous success? 5. What were the causes ol Jimmy Porter's anger?
THE WORKING-CLASS NOVEL
An important development of the 1950s and early 1960s was the emergence of the working-class novel. By this time the "angry young men" had shown the first signs of recon ciliation with the existing reality. In fact, the reading public was expecting something new and fresh.
The working-class novel of the 50s- 60s brought new
themes into the proletarian English literature. First of all they introduced a new working class hero, with his aimless protest and passionate fury against everything and every body. Another peculiarity of the working class novels is a strong emphasis on the workers' private life. The first books were very favourably greeted by the English bour geois critics, because the hero introduced by the writers agreed with the Labour ideal of the young worker.
The reading public and the critics saw in the books of Sillitoe, Chaplin, Barstow and others the true representa tion of the working class life, the sincere attempts of the writers to achieve a better understanding of life conflicts, to solve some of the urgent problems of our times.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, published in
1958, attracted the attention of both the critics and the
readers. The novel was written by a young man, Alan
Sillitoe, and was his first step as a writer.
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(b. 1928)
Alan Silitoe was born in Nottingham in the family of a worker His childhood coincided with the hungry 30s. Alan had to leave school very early and at the age of four teen he began to work at a bicycle factory At the age ot twenty he joined the Army and spent two years in Malaya. There he fell ill and was sent to hospital, where he started writing and made a draft version of his first work and sorne notes of the novel Key to the Door
Sillitoe's first novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morn ing (1958) is a simple story about the life of an ordinary young worker, and, as some critics noted, "every word in it rings true" The realistic reflection of the routine and tedium of the factory worker's life is one of the rnain merits of the novel.
Arthur Seaton, the principal character of the novel, is a typical representative of the majority of the English working class of the period of relative prosperity The author does not idealize his hero. Arthur Seaton does not worry much about lofty matters or urgent world problems. His motto "I am all right, Jack" clearly reflects his views and ideals. His pay is quite sufficient but his pastimes are rather dull, for they are mostly limited to drinking. He understands that his life is being wasted, but he makes no attempt to change it. The increasing difficulties of every day life, brought about by the labour conditions that be come harder from day to day, finally make Arthur angry
and dissatisfied. He begins to protest against hard labour and the Government, but young Seaton only instinctively hates the enemies of the working class. He is not yet ready to oppose them from the stand-point of his class. His prot est is aimless as he only speaks and does not act. This protest, expressed exclusively in words, is the typical feature of all the main characters of the working class novel.
K.EY TO THE DOOR
The answers to the problems posed in his first novel are given by Sillitoe in his next book Key to the Door (1961). This is a realistic work in which Sillitoe gives a wide, generalized picture of English life. It may be called an autobiographical novel. The author describes his hard life and his attempts to find the right answers to the problems he faces. It is a novel about the hero's evolution, about the choice of ways he must take. The noisy protest and aimless
anger of Arthur Seaton give way to a controlled resentment at social injustice and a conscious approach to political
development.
The book has four parts. In the first part we learn about the great hardships suffered by Brian, the main character
of the novel, in his childhood. His parents are now both jobless, they drink beer and pay little or no attention to their son. In the second part Sillitoe shows Brian's awa
kening to life, his thirst for knowledge and his great desire
to escape from his surroundings and to build up a decent
life for himself. In order to achieve this he volunteers for the Army at an early age. In part three Brian goes to Ma laya as a soldier There he has to defend the social class that is his enemy. Sillitoe pays much attention to the Ma layan episodes in the book. He gives a vivid picture of the ruined and oppressed country, whose people are fighting courageously for their freedom. Everything that Brian sees in Malaya influences him greatly and brings him to a final decision. The climax of the novel comes in the fourth part of the book, from which we learn that Brian Seaton is faced with a dilemma- whether to kill a Malayan patriot (and thus follow the jungle laws of capitalist society) or to save him (and prove his own dignity and his proletarian ho nour). "And I let him go!.. I let him go because he was a comrade. I didn't kill him because he was a man" Brian's thoughts after saving the Malayan communist show what a great evolution he has undergone: from a colo-
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