Searching for Meaning in the Modern Novel

     The second major essay for the Study of the Novel at Rogers State University for the Spring 2015 semester.

     World War I was proclaimed as "the war to end all wars". In theory, that sounded great. In practice....it really did not work that way at all; creating far more problems that it solved. Most people had no idea how to cope with this terrifying new landscape they found themselves in; as their former lives had been vaporized by the devastating war. So the survivors were left restless(Fitzgerald 3, 6, 64), idle(Hemingway 180) and, in some cases, hopeless. In general, Daisy Buchanan spoke for her generation when she described herself as "pretty cynical about everything", as did Brett Ashley when she complained of being "so miserable" (Fitzgerald 16, Hemingway 32). Some people tried to discover or create new meaning to their existence, while others were content to drift along.
     Once Joyce had led the charge into literary modernism, many other writers jumped on this chance to play with language in seeking the Holy Grail of placing reality-as-it-was onto the printed page. Some succeeded more than others, but most often remembered of the group are William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Albert Camus was greatly influenced by this group of writers in his work about twenty years later. Journalists like Camus and Hemingway did well with this new style; as they were used to telling the facts as accurately as possible with as little opinionated ornamentation as necessary. Questions abounded in the post-WWI world, and answers were difficult to find. So modern novels do not typically provide answers, instead they get readers to grapple with the problems presented and come to their own conclusions. Part of the modernist language experimentation take place shifted the focus of the novel gradually inward; conflicts within oneself rather than in the world one inhabits. Also, in The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald, The Sun Also Rises, by Hemingway, and The Stranger, by Camus, the narrator was allowed to observe and take some role in the events of the tale; but he was no longer exclusively the protagonist. Nor were these first-person tales told with an explicitly educational or moral focus in mind; they were just stories that must be told.
     Among other things Nick Carraway observed about his neighbor, Jay Gatsby had an extraordinary war record, perhaps because in part due to his equally extraordinary gift for hope(Fitzgerald 150-151; 2). Combine this gift with incredible faithfulness in all things, and you understand how he found meaning; in the lost hope of reclaiming Daisy (Fitzgerald 98). Because she is so achingly nearby yet distant at the same time, his possessions derive meaning from their associations with her memory(Fitzgerald 45-46, 91), as does the green dock light(Fitzgerald 20-21, 93, 180).
     Machines were on the rise during this time, too, and that was hard for people to deal with. As Meursault states in Stranger, they "destroyed everything" (Camus 112). And in that destruction, mankind no longer mattered. One met their demise violently and without total finality; machines like Gatsby's car or the guillotine ruthlessly and without error cut the Fates' string of life. Though Meursault is talking of the machine which will bring about his own death in this passage, Gatsby's Myrtle Wilson was also "killed discreetly, with little shame and great precision" (Fitzgerald 137, Camus 112). Meursault is, in a way, a machine himself; with his abject apathy to anything outside his own phsyical well-being and his incapability to feel remorse (Camus 100). As the prosecuting lawyer states, he doesn't really have a soul and moral principles are foreign objects (Camus 101). Because machines are without souls, they do not seek a meaning or reason for their existence. And so the closest Meursault ever comes to a life philosophy is when he says that life is absurd (Camus 121).
     Strange thigns are part of life, yes. Besides killing you, the machines could woud or maim, as it is implied that Jake Barnes' injury occurred due to a plane crash (Hemingway 120). Jake manages to adapt to the postwar world best of anyone we meet in these three novels. He has a steady job(Hemingway 19-20) and gets along with folks well. In some ways he might have replaced religion with his ardent following of bullfighting(Hemingway 136-37), which seems like a common response in the small Spanish town we visit (Hemingway 157-73). That seems to be a very modern sentiment; as our football stadiums and basketball arenas have been described as our American cathedrals. Perhaps our 21st-century society is one filled with domestic expatriates (Hemingway 120).
     While Meursault obviously could not care less about religiion, because he lacked the understanding of what it is to be human, and Brett has the rather hopeless substitute of "not being a bitch" (Hemingway 248), perhaps the answer is the church. Nick and Jake and readers can't help but be a little interested, confused and disgusted about the careless people(Fitzgerald 20), and while Jake may be "technically" a "rotten Catholic", he still strives to be a better person (Hemingway 128, 103). Nick wishes the world would stay at a sort of moral attention forever(Fitzgerald 2), which is understandable. There will always be careless people in the world like Jordan, Tom and Daisy(Fitzgerald 58, 179), but on the other hand, there will also always be people like the magistrate or the priest(Camus 66-71, 115-122).

WORKS CITED
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. 1942. Trans. Matthew Ward. New York: Vintage International, 1989. Print.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. 1926. new York: Scribner, 2006. Print.