Those Most Nearly Touched Essay Example for Free

Those Most Nearly Touched Essay One of the most influential critics of the social problems in American history was Civil Rights spokesperson W. E. B. DuBois, who believed that Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touchedcriticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those ledthis is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society. One of the leading vehicles of such criticism since the beginning of the United States of America was literature. Like Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin, American literature molded its history by changing social perspectives with authors voices. Stowes character changed popular American societys views on the morality of permanent servitude, and other writers have introduced new views into mainstream thought by providing social criticism of their generations through characters perspectives. Three such writers were Stephen Crane, Flannery OConnor, and Hunter S. Thompson. Cranes criticism of the nature of war, OConnors criticism of gender, racism and religion, and Thompsons criticism of the deterioration of American values were all voices of American generations and essential elements of the evolution of modern American society. Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage was a novel that exploited an underlying irony of the nature of the American Civil War and war itself, as it was the first non-romantic novel of the Civil War to attain widespread popularity. Rather than depicting soldiers fighting for some noble and important cause, like literature of the American Revolution, Crane painted what seemed to be loosely cohering incidents that demystified and reshaped his generations views on warfare. War was not dignified; it was hard stuff. Men ran away howling. Bodies were strewn and torn. War, went the cliche, was hell. Crane created characters and scenes that highlighted the problems of his Americas popular opinion of war for those whose interests are most nearly touched. In Cranes novel, those people were the innocent young soldiers who were thrown into hell and bestowed with responsibilities and expectations of highly immoral standards. He showed his generation and generations of Americans to come the horrors and the true nature of war. By exposing the fears and inner thoughts of Henry Fleming in his new environments, Crane introduced America to the harsh reality that the blue and the gray honestly dont ever seem too entirely certain why theyre fighting each other. These were merely young men killing each other without really understanding the reason. Crane allowed America to understand the point of view of an innocent thrown into chaos. By doing so, he changed the previously romantic, chivalrous perception of war, and altered it into modern societys idea of war and appreciation of peace. The short stories of Flannery OConnor were also vehicles for social criticism of some problems of her generation, such as gender roles, sin, and racial relations. OConnors stories, written in the late 1940s and 1950s, were hard-hitting writings with a sense of deep despair as to the condition of the society that they described. She grotesquely illustrated the pre-Civil Rights racism problems present in her story Everything that Rises Must Converge. The story, which described a conflict of interest between Julian and his racist mother on a newly de-segregated bus, allowed its reader to realize in the end that both characters were wrong. The mother was ignorant for being racist and living in her own perfect world of sacrifice, while Julian was ignorant for blaming his mother for his place in life and for seeming to only take the side of the black people in the story just to prove her ignorance. In this sense, the ignorance in the story was met with a dose of poetic justice. Julians mother died, while he will be guilty for the remainder of his unhappy life. Another element of her society that OConnor criticized with her literature was its lack of true religious virtue and moral substance. She used multiple Christian elements to ironically sustain internally conflicting characters like Julian, Ruby in Revelation, and Parker in Parkers Back. Religious symbolism pervaded OConnors stories, like the hot breath of the burning tree that Parker met after his tractor accident, which was like the bush that Moses found. The tattoos that adorn Parkers body were absolutely symbolical of OConnors idea of her Americas moral fiber, like the tattoo of Jesus Christ on his back, where he would never see it. The tattoo of a serpent evoked thoughts of the devil in the Garden of Eden. OConnor frequently made use of the religious epiphany, or revelation, in her stories. In Revelation, Ruby experienced an epiphany at the end in the pig parlor as a result of the events that occurred in the doctors office with Mary Grace. Ruby witnessed A visionary light in her eyes; she saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vaste horde of souls were running towards heaven. In Parkers Back, Parkers conversion was one element of revelation in the story, but the real revelation occurred outside the bar in the alley when Parker contemplated his life. In The Lame Shall Enter First, Nortons father experiences a horrific revelation when he entered the attic at the conclusion of the story. He realized that he had stuffed his own emptiness with good works like a glutton, and had completely ignored the emotional needs of his own son. This fickleness and moral ignorance indicated a strong lack of true religious piety present in her society. Perhaps OConnors greatest legacy to the world of literature and social commentary was her contribution to the widespread perception of gender roles in her American society. Stories like The Life You Save May Be Your Own gave a generation of readers a new perspective on life as a woman in rural America. The grotesque nature of it and OConnors other stories made the message that she conveyed to society particularly sharp-edged. Her criticisms of her societys problems with gender and race relations, and the value of religion, were pungent and effective vehicles of change that molded American mindset in more ways than one. The late Hunter S. Thompson was a third American author that affected a generation with his ? no holds barred journalistic approach to fiction and social criticism. Thompsons underlying criticism was much like Cranes a century earlier. Thompson wondered the point in fighting -on our side or theirs, a sentiment common of to his generation that would not have manifested if Cranes ideas had not. Thompson also criticized the counter-culture created by the Peace and Understanding attained by the chaotic ? baby-boomer rebellion that began in the 1950s and crested in the 1960s. He was not opposed to the increasingly common use of mind-altering drugs as much as he was disappointed in his societys failure to sustain the peace and understanding. Thompson notes, Their loss and failure is ours, too. What (Timothy) Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create a generation of permanent cripples, [and] failed seekers. By criticizing the drug culture as a user, Thompson embodied the hypocrisy of the generation that he portrayed. Perhaps he represented drug use as getting rid of the pain of being a man just as well as Richard Nixon represented ? that dark venal, and incurably violent side of the American character. One thing was for certain, that Thompson embodied the changing moral aptitude of America. His society liberalized taboo or immoral topics into mainstream culture like the widespread use of drugs and sex. The proponents of these changes were names such as Hugh Hefner, Larry Flynt, Cheech and Chong, and Tim Leary. To many, these values, or loss thereof, represented a loss that Thompson termed more decisively as the death of the American Dream. Neither peace nor morality was prevalent in Thompsons era or modern Americas. In this sense, Thompson merely chronicles the changes as he claimed, as a ? gonzo journalist. However, his descriptions were certainly eloquent and meaningful enough to open the eyes of generations following to the realities and perspectives that occurred in the midst of the chaos of his generation. Stephen Crane, Flannery OConnor, and Hunter S. Thompson were three American authors who significantly altered the course of American history with the social criticism present in the perspectives of characters in their literature. Whether the heart of their intended critique on society was gender, religion, race, or war, these writers molded their respective generations and subsequent generation with their voices. They each contributed to the American society that they criticized with their criticism, the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society. Works Cited Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. New York: The Modern Library, 1951. OConnor, Flannery. The Complete Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1971. Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. New York: Random House, 1971. Schwartz, Stephen. The End Of The Counter-Culture. The Weekly Standard, 22 February 2005. Davidson, Andy. University of Mississippi English 224 Angel Online class notes.