John Irving's IIosyncratic Characters

Irving creates a mysterious setting in these three stories, which is representative of the mystery of the newly founded United States. In each of these three stories, Irving immerses the reader into the setting and creates a mysterious tone with this description. In the time period that Irving wrote these stories, much of what is the United States today was uncharted territory, and in these stories, Irving symbolizes the unknown landscape of America with mystifying settings.

I strongly agree the statement “Washington Irving found in legend and folklore a view of the natural world colored by emotion, by superstition, and by the ancient belief that supernatural beings inhabit the wild places of the earth. He wrote stories that illustrated old truths about human nature and the dramatic possibilities of the American landscape.” Although Irving wrote over twenty volumes, including essays, poems, histories, biographies, and more, in class, we have focused on his fiction. Irving dispersed many beliefs and legends of his time, and the past, into his stories. He also made great use of American themes in these literary pursuits. Such details along with existent people and events interlaced in his fanciful tales are some of the reasons I find his work so distinctive and enjoyable.

The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

John Irving begins his novel with one of the most iconic introductory lines in modern literature; introducing a character who is a great source of pain and anguish, yet the ultimate source behind the narrator’s belief in God (Irving 3). In this paradoxical sentiment the theme of the book born, what follows it is a journey that is different from any other. John Wheelwright, the narrator, tells a story of his best friend Owen Meany and what effect he has had on John’s own life, while concurrently interjecting the plot with information about the occurrence in the world around him and how it relates back to Owen. Through the uses of sporadic but continuous plot development John Irving develops a self acclaimed Christ-like character whose

Alison Bechdel’s memoir, Fun Home, is a compelling narrative in which Bechdel takes the reader through her life and gives insight into her relationship and the complex lifestyle her closeted homosexual father, Bruce Bechdel. However, her serious topic is told through the narrative of comics, images that literally put the readers into the moments of her life with her. Even though, the graphic images provide visual insight, Bechdel makes a conscious decision to include a multitude of literary allusions because, as Bechdel describes, “I employ these allusions to James and Fitzgerald not only as descriptive devices, but because my parent’s are most real to me in fictional terms.” (Bechdel, Page 67) Her continued use of literary allusions can be seen as an insight to her life. The particular works of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Oscar Wilde’s plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Ernest because of their content concerning facades and the lengths one person goes through to keep a part of their identity or life a secret. TRANSITION Bruce Bechdel was the master of secrecy, hiding a part of his sexuality behind his heterosexual marriage in order to keep his idea of an acceptable livelihood. It is clear that Bruce Bechdel had a few infidelities with males throughout Bechdel’s childhood, infidelities that she did not know until later in life. This creates a whole new perceptive for Bechdel. The father who she thought as a controlling, stern, literary fein

He is puerile. His sense of political outrage is strictly emotional.” This is definitely a mind-boggling idea since there are so many characteristics he and Johnny share, but it is agreeable that Johnny Wheelwright did lack “distance and perspective”. In A Prayer for Owen Meany, John stated that he was “a Joseph” and that he did nothing. This was completely correct and gives an understanding to why Irving made him the main character in the first place. The reader gets to see into Johnny’s thought and sees the book through that singular perspective, but Irving states that he has none. That is because he states everything as it is and gives the opinions of Irving himself in order to make political statements. This was an amazing move on Irving’s part, and it gave the reader a chance to absorb these kinds of concepts without being given them by a narrator. Instead all the ideas can be analyzed as if the reader was a first person observer as well. John Irving also divulged that he book was created with the question of what might convince him of religious faith. A Prayer for Owen Meany was the result of such and embodied who Irving might be if those events had happened to him. Overall, Irving is no John Wheelwright, but the story

By spending just a night with a femme fatale type woman, men can suffer extreme harm or even death. The sheer power a Siren has over sailors passing her island can make a reader feel sympathetic for these relatively powerless sailors. This power that women can have over men is illustrated in a strong manner with this allusion, and leads to a reader feeling sorry for these men. Furthermore, Tim Buckley, showing the indecision that could strike a man when confronted by a threatening woman, writes “I am puzzled as the newborn child/ I am troubled at the tide:/ Should I stand amid the breakers?/ Should I lie with death my bride?” (Buckley). The mental argument that a man has of whether or not to go the the woman who is calling him or to stay where he is can be likened to the decision the sailors had to make upon hearing the Siren. The allusion to the victims of the Sirens debating whether or not to jump off their ship and swim to the Sirens is similar to the situations that men in Buckley’s era would have to deal with when faced with the questions of whether to become intimate with a threatening women or

When Irving was growing up, he had never planned or expected him to become a pilot. Now, as the youngest and first African-American to fly solo around the world, Irving has proved to the world that nothing can stop him from his dream. When he was 18, he turned down the football scholarship and decided to study aviation in college. This random decision of his made his family and friends think that he was crazy. But after years of hard working and studying, he graduated from the college. After graduation, he planned to fly around the world. This time, the media hit Irving hard, people refused to provide him money or equipment, people think he would not return from this expedition because he is too young and inexperienced. But as he spread his

Irving, like everyone, had several difficulties in his life. The first difficulty Irving had was about living through a writing profession. During Irving’s time in the early 19th century, writing wasn’t a profession in America that could be taken seriously for a living. (Hedges) America’s publications were too small (Washington), foreign publications that were imported to America were too cheap, and American literature hadn’t fully emerged yet. (Hedges) Irving was born just after the Revolutionary War and the nation was just too young. (Dickstein) But Irving’s financially dependent family firm, P.&E. Irving, went bankrupt in 1818 and he had to write for a living. (Washington)

Does the name “Washington Irving” strike a bell? The author of the immortalized tales, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” A man who has passed away almost two centuries ago, and still yet, a man who has paved the way for American literature. Washington Irving was born in New York, New York on April 3, 1783, and turned to writing once the family’s import-export business had failed. Realizing that there would be no more means to support himself financially, Irving took up his talent and his passion as his profession. Throughout his life, Irving traveled constantly; from London, England, to Madrid, Spain, as well as the Western prairie frontiers of his homeland. His most renowned work, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,

Washington Irving is known throughout the literary community as a very well known author and writer. He has written famous books such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Irving Traveled a lot during his lifetime and encountered things many people would find uncanny or strange. Most people think that Irving's work were just out of randomness or a spontaneous celebration of ideas. In reality, Washington Irving's life and travels abroad, helped inspire him to write such great novels such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Tormented by the devastation wrought by World War I, individuals across the world struggled to communicate their experiences, thoughts, and sorrows in their fragmented societies. Authors such as James Joyce, T.S. Elliot, and Virginia Wolfe gave voice to these individuals through their implementation of a stream of consciousness writing style that became a key feature in the modernist literary movement. In his short story “The Dead”, the final tale in his collection Dubliners, James Joyce represents the struggles of a well-respected figure whose depression and low self-esteem causes him to agonize over an annual speech he gives and interferes with his ability to communicate his desires to his wife. Similarly, in his poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Elliot illustrates how the anxiety a man faces over how he will be interpreted by others impedes on his desire to communicate. Likewise, in her novel Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Wolfe’s depiction of the anguish war veterans’ suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) deal with in their ardent desire to communicate exposes the darkest ramifications of the war. These authors in modernist literature demonstrate the inhibiting effects of mental illnesses on an individual’s ability to communicate, resulting in their societal alienation.

Furthermore, with different stories, ones such as The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are jammed packed by men who are, in my words hurt deeply through the body and the mind beyond repair. In these works, World War I casts a shadow over characters that do not agree in the traditions and values of the nineteenth century or in the goodness of government. However, the Hemingway hero struggles to make his own meaning in a world filled with suspicion and war.

Norman Mailer was a cultural narrator and analyst expressing his notion through novels and journalism. He was considered one of the most important non-fiction writers who have come since the end of World War II. The non-fictional writings of Norman Mailer were created based upon his harsh life and journey of serving in the war. Norman Mailer's early novels show an opposition of politics and history. This opposition is created to provide the reader with a clear distinction of collective and in ideal power. “With the appearance of the Naked and The Dead in 1948, Norman Mailer was hailed by many critics as one of the most promising writers of the postwar generation.” (Rollyson, 1). By whatever standard Norman Mailer is judged, unmistakably a few of his books have a safe place in after war abstract history, as well as in the group of noteworthy American Literary Achievements. Mailer was included to the United States Army and was overseas for 18 months. While overseas, his experiences as a field artillery surveyor, clerk, interpreter of Ariel Photographs, riflemen, and cook contributed to his beliefs about the military and is depicted in such way in his novel Naked and The Dead. (Rollyson,11).