American Literature
American literature began after the arrival of the first English colonists to America in the 17th century. The first literary works deal with the problems connected with building the settlements and reflect the philosophy, ideas and views of the settlers. Later they started to write fiction, too. The most beloved American literary works include books by Jack London, James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, Ernest Thompson Seton, Bret Harte and others telling stories from nature or about Indians, gold-diggers etc. Another famous man, Edgar Allan Poe, is the founder of thrillers and horrors.
The best known American dramatists include Eugene O’Neil, Tennesee Williams, Arthur Miller, the best known poets include Walt Whitman, Emilly Dickinson or some of the beatniks.
Modern American literature is represented especially by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemongway, William Faulkner, Margaret Mitchell, Bernard Malamud.
I also want to speak of some recent American authors, e.g. Jack Kerouac, a beatnik, who became famous through his novels of the road, e.g. On the road, or Ray Bradbury and his stories, Joseph Heller whose Catch 22 we could see at the cinema, too or Arthur Hailey, who was born in England and lives in Canada but whose books – all of them bestsellers – are inspired by the life style in the USA.
But culture is not only literature, I would like to mention, although very briefly, some of the best known English painters – Thomas Gainsborough, William Turner, John Constable, William Hogarth. I could talk about the galleries in London, for instance about the National Gallery.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was one of the best-known American writers. He was born in 1899 in Illinois, he lived in the USA, in Paris and Cuba. He made a member of hunting trips to Africa and he traveled all his life. He was a newspaper reporter and that is why he was deeply interested in public events. He used to take part in many public events. In World War I he served in an ambulance group, during the Spanish Civil War he stayed in Spain and reported on it. He was keen on hunting trips so he has a great respect for courage. His brave characters do not always survive but they live their lives to the fullest.
Hemingway belonged to a group of American intellectuals who called themselves “the lost generation”. They felt that having lived through one disaster – the war – they could expect another, still worse, catastrophe.
He was verbally gifted and he developed a striking style, which was simple bet very emotional. His style of writing contributed to the international popularity of his fiction. His interest in hunting, fishing and bull-fighting is reflected in his heroes. First Hemingway won popularity with “Fiesta” which was published in American under the title “The Sun Also Rises”. Hemingway’s best books are “A Farewell to Arms”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (these are novels) and short story “The Old Man and the Sea”. In „A Farewell to Arms“ Hemingway shows the charming and moving love of an American lieutenant in the Italian Ambulance Service and an English nurse. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a psychological picture of the Spanish Civil War. The main character of this novel is Robert Jordan. He is a sapable American who come to the guerilla group to help them destroy a strategically important bridge. Here he meets a girl, Mary, and falls in love with her. Robertfinds he is nothing alone and death means nothing. The fourth day Robert succeeds in blowing the bridge up but he is badly hurt and cannot go on with the group. He knows he is going to die. In the end he realizes what a beautiful place the world really is and how much it is worth fighting for.
In the short story “The Old Man and the Sea” Hemingway shows the fight between nature and man. The main character of the story is Santiago, a poor old Cuban fisherman who used to go fishing with a boy as a helper. But for forty days they had bad luck and caught no fish. So the boy was ordered by his parents to go in another luckier boat. Santiago was then forces to go out to sea alone and each day he used to return with his boat empty. Finally, after 84 days of bad luck, Santiago went out father than usual and succeeded in catching a very big fish. After a long fight he killed it and fastened it to the boat. Soon, however the first shark appeared because he caught the smell of the fish’s blood in the sea. Santiago prepared his harpoon. When the shark hit the fish, Santiago killed it but at the same time lost his harpoon. Then he lashed his knife to the end of one of the oars and when the next shark come, he used it as a weapon. Unfortunatelly when he killed the fourth shark, the knife broke and Santiago was left weaponless. Through both his hands were bleeding, he still went on fighting the sharks as best he could by killing them with a piece of an old broken oar. But his fight was in vain, when he reached his homeport, there was nothing left of the fish but only its skeleton.
Santiago is typical character in Hemingway’s novels. He knows he will be beaten in his battle against the forces of the nature but he fights on even when he knows that the fight is useless. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for this short story in 1954.
During the last years of his life Hemingway suffered from a depression, which led to his suicide in 1961. Some of his work was published posthumously, e.g. “A Moveable Feast”, “Islands in the Stream”.