American Literature and Research

Society affects the belongs of great deal who live in it. It dictates how they should be bind and establishes norms that argon expected to be obeyed separatewise mess who do non make full the expectations are considered as deviant, rebellious and orderings outcasts. Society, however, is susceptible to change, as it is highly shaped by the events and its resulting pervasive ideas, occurring in certain periods of time.The terce stories, The Vanishing American posterior by Jack Kerouac, Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and Soldiers Home by Ernest Heming commission clearly illustrates how society changes and how it affects the people in it and how people attempts to hold in deviance. The accounting Soldiers Home is a story of a unseasoned man who returns as a changed man to okey in 1919 after the First mankind War. This story was get-go print in 1925. The young soldier Harold Krebs enlisted in the Marines and goes to war for two years.When he returns home it is very obvious that he is not the same wishful, slick, unearthly young man in the picture who goes to a Methodist College and enjoys college lives with trades union brothers all in all daylong. Now he is passive and refers to himself as not part of the acres. Moreover, it have the appearance _or_ semblances he does not want to be involved with life in general, the reason is that, He did not want consequences . he wanted to live along without consequences, thusly he withdrew (Hemingway 2007).Around him there is an air and sense of loss, he even has to lose his own war stories as he had to check lies about his experiences since people in his town decided they have had ample of the stories of atrocities related by the soldiers who came home earlier than him. Moreover, there are so many affaires that he does not want to take part anymore even courting as it states, He did not want to have to do any courting (Hemingway 2007). It is pretty obvious that the war had changed Krebs, and t he railroad line he couldnt make her see it, when he comforts his gravel after telling her that he does not love her, hinted to the reason (Hemingway 2007).The war had taught him a lot of things including stifling his emotions. And most importantly, he could not relieve to his mother what he had gone through in the war, he could not make her understand and see the horror the war has exposed him. and his family, especially his parents, could not see why he has to act that way while the other soldiers in the neighborhood had clearly bmd on, having trusty jobs and getting married, and so they pressured him to go brook to the normal society. The First field War brought many countries into a global armed conflict that was considered the first devastating and solemn event in all of humane history.People died by the thousands and many suddenly find themselves losing their family and friends. The soldiers, especially, are daily exposed not only to the hardships of war but the thre at and anxiety that accompanies it. Trench warfare specifically exposed the soldiers to a very harsh, stagnant and extremely risky environment. Right before their eyes skulls and brains were blown outside(a). An example of a horrible incident is when a man who had the top of his head blown away was groaning care an animal for three hours before he died (Hemingway Lecture Notes).Soldiers surround him cannot avoid being affected by such painful human torture, as they were befriendless to ease his pain. No wonder that an incident like this make many soldiers who return home after the war broken, without hope and suffer emotional numbness and disbelief like Krebs did. According to the division of Veterans Affairs it is normal that soldiers experiences a kind of trauma (shellshock and post traumatic stress disorder) after the war since it is indeed a very awful human experience.Soldiers feel somehow dissociated from what they know is normal life. It is potential that the other sold iers like Charley Simmons who easily adjusted to normal life in Oklahoma did not suffer as much as Krebs did. Studies revealed that soldiers do not experience the same kind of trauma as not all of them are exposed to more prolonged, extensive, and horrifying situation as Krebs probably was. However, society put pressure on them by expecting them to move on, to forget the war (National Center 2007).The short story Harrison Bergeron reflects the 1950s pact lifestyle and the rebellious protestation of a young boy against it. It was published in 1961. The story describes the hopeful and desperate attempts of that society to bring off differences and to get reach of equality especially in terms of intellect and strong-arm appearance. If any man has above normal average intelligence, they put a metal handicap radio in his ear which in every 20 seconds, a noise from the government transmitter will violate his approximateing, so that he cannot use his intelligence for his advantage.I f a woman is beautiful, a hideous mask covers her face to conceal her beauty. Moreover, people are burden with sashweights and bags of birdshot to keep them from being graceful in their movements or to reduce their strength. The testify is, anything that can make them look as superior from every personify else are made into a handicap. They do not want to go back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else (Vonnegut 2005).Moreover, the idea of disobeying the law, when Hazel suggested that they made a press to take out some lead balls from the birdshot canvas bag, was an unthinkable thing for according to George, The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society( Vonnegut 2005)? They believe that cheating on laws brings social upheavals that they do not like. The strange thing is that Hazel and George and the people around them seem to get used to the idea of shape, as George states, I dont notice it any more. It just a p art of me (Vonnegut 2005).However, their son, Harrison, is put into jail and eventually killed for rebelling against it. As the Handicapper General attacked their son on TV, parents of Harrison were not able to help him. Two are several forces that led into the conformity of the 1950s the Korean conflict and the threat of communism. But the underlying root cause of it all is the fear of the terrors of war that they previously experienced in the Second World War. Therefore to avoid any conflict, social conformity is encouraged since they believed that conformity is unity.The place of men and women in society were clearly defined women beat home while the men go out to work and achieve the American vision. This is being depicted by Hazel and George Bergeron Hazel waistband at home while George works. Men are especially worn-out to the collective idea of organization man they were expected to work in corporations, to put on flannel suits and pursue the American dream. The American dream is like the Handicapper General that dictates the ideas and dreams of the people. Every one is encouraged to think and act alike and was preoccupied with the lure of consumerism and materialism.Conformity are in any case seen in the sameness of house designs , like the one in Levittown and the sameness of appetite, as Americans began to be obsessed with fast foods. Conformity was especially achieved with the aid of Television. As in the story, all of the action occurred in front of the Television (Costello 2007). However, the young contemporariess are beginning to rebel, as correspondd by Harrison, but the force of conformity was so strong that parents are in bondage to it, unable to pack the necessary psychological and emotional help that their children desperately needed.The Vanishing American Hobo was published in 1960. It tells of the experiences of the hobos as they travels like vagabonds from place to place crossways America usually with back packs on their backs. T hey are a people who choose to live as exiles of society, who sleep just anywhere, to experience the independence that they desire, Theres vigour nobler than to put up with a few inconveniences like snakes and spread for the sake of absolute freedom (Kerouac 2008). But freedom from what?Obviously from their regulative society who dictates what they should do or have. According to Kerouac, the hobo is born of pride, having nothing to do with a community but with himself and other hobos and maybe a dog (Kerouac 2008). This means that they are proud of their lifestyle or subculture, that they on purpose do not want to associate with society and maintain micro intimate interest with other people, aside from the hobos like them. The author laments that they are quickly becoming a vanishing lot because of the police and the media.The police, riding in their tax-paid police, cars lookupes for them everywhere suspecting them as possible spies against the government while the media, o n the other hand, portray them as the rapist, the strangler, and child-eater so that adults and children stay away from them and no longer provides them with the food that they need (Kerouac 2008). This shows clearly the attempts of the government to suppress the subculture that they symbolizes and to force them back to what is normal.In the wake of the conformity of the 1950s arises the Beat extension. Beat generation is attributed to Jack Kerouac. Though it could mean being defeated or fag out of life like being pushed up against the wall or implying a sense of being used or raw Jack would also like it to refer to what is beatific (The Beat Generation Lecture). Jack and his friends, in ushering in the beat generation, encourages the protest of the 60s against the established society of materialism, where everyone are encouraged to own cars and decent homes.The generation, having experienced uncertainties of the falling off and the terror of war in childhood, is a disillusioned lot who desperately wants to hold on to something that they can believe in(Beat Generation Lecture Notes Abieva no date). They do not find such meaning in the collective conformity of the 1950s, the generation of their fathers. In fact, they do not trust this collective society who was responsible for(p) for the bad circumstances of depression and global wars.The hobos, particularly, are glorified as people who defy the restrictive and demanding norms of society in pursuit of freedom. They symbolize the solitary desire of that generation, to be left alone, to figure things out for themselves, to search for meaning. As the period was compounded by hysteria of the rise of communism, it seems that the unspoiled thing to do in that generation, to preserve ones individual identity, is to quit that society.Attempts were made to discourage this deviance (subculture) as what McCarthy did in his pursuit against communism. The media and police were stiff tools for suppression (Abieva, no d ate). The three stories therefore clearly give an insight into the societies in the periods of American history following just after turbulent struggles. The horrors and uncertainties of the Wars and Depression molded the consciousness of the people, and as they try to cope with the challenge of their era, it therefore changed their way of thinking and lifestyle.People become unify for certain causes and also united in their sufferings. However, some people do try to get out of its safe mold, to carve a life according to the dictates of their own minds. To be different is what scares most people so that society always attempts to suppress this deviance back to conformity by exerting force or pressure. flora Cited Abieva, Natalia. Protest and Experiment in the Literature of the Beat Generation. Fairfield University. no date. Accessed November 4, 2008 Costello, Mr. Conformity Notes fifties Lecture On Society. Canfield Foundation Website. March 2007. Accessed November 4, 2008 http //servtlc. access-k12. org/ achievement/Fifties_Conformity. htm Hemingway, Ernest. Soldiers Home. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. 2007. Accessed November 4, 2008 Kerouac , Jack. The Vanishing American Hobo.Cloud skirt Trail Home. 2008. Accessed November 4, 2008 National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder . United States part of Veterans Affairs. May 2007. Accessed November 4, 2008 Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. West Valley College. September 2005. Accessed November 4, 2008