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  • Essay / A look at fragmentation in Stowe and Crane's realistic novel

    As Albert Camus once said: "You will never live if you seek the meaning of life." »[1] If “order” in life means a structure that can provide meaning, “fragmentation” considers life events, whether happy or unhappy, as arbitrary and therefore meaningless. As constructions of language, the events of novels are almost always significant. This element distinguishes the realistic novel from reality, in that loss and suffering without further meaning are inevitable in real life experiences, implying inevitable fragmentation within society. Camus's reality revolves around the idea that, in seeking order, we miss the very meaning of random events. From this premise, the novel exists as a “myth” of happiness that “holds together” a fragmented society through the possibility that random events can be sequenced, consequently revealing meaning in nonsense. However, reflections of reality, the fragments of society can only be held together within the framework of the novel, and not in reality. Life, whether real or depicted in a novel, can only be fully ordered by following a predetermined path. Throughout Stowe and Crane's novels, order is not controlled by inexplicable forces but by societal expectations which, once established, are considered "the order." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In the war zone Crane describes, idealistic expectations focus on two options: victory or an honorable death. Henry the Younger rejects both options by first withdrawing, a decision based on extreme emotions: “There was a revelation. He also threw down his gun and fled […] He ran like a rabbit. »[1] It can be argued that the predetermined structure that defines "order" assumes a society without feeling and that emotional "revelation" inspires a different course of action. Currently, youth not only refuse to meet social expectations, but also gender expectations; as a war story, the traditional subject would be patriotic heroism, not a realism that allows for the display of truthful cowardice. Yet this cowardice is accepted through the adverb “also” which accuses others of the same behavior, suggesting that the fragmentation of society can begin when a single person recognizes that they can choose another path. An accumulated fragmentation is emphasized by the structure; as the individual actively makes the decision to flee, the sentences consequently become more concise, as if they are also fragmenting. Through the protagonist's and syntax's refusal to stay in a predetermined order, it suggests that social expectations of value are unrealistic, in novels or in life. Henry is therefore honest in acting outwardly on his internal emotions, but he is considered false in relation to certain expectations of becoming a "calm, virile, self-respecting [man]" [2] in battle. However, since these attributes are expectations, it can be assumed that they were formed before the battle. Therefore, on a larger scale, the action of war is technically a fragmentation of the order of human life; previously ordered expectations become irrelevant. While Henry's rejection of socially ordered behavior is seen as shameful, Eliza's break from traditional slave behavior in Stowe's narrative ultimately has positive consequences. Slave owners draw apath for slaves, which leads only to servitude and death. This structured “order” gave economic meaning to slave traders, but it was arbitrary and fortuitous events that provided meaningful freedom to slaves. Eliza's actions cause fragmentation by assuming that she is entitled to freedom in a structured society without any access to it: "with one wild cry and one leap forward she leapt precipitously [...] ] on the ice raft beyond. »[3 ] The boundaries between genres are also pushed back. Despair forces Eliza from a feminine domestic sphere to a primitive masculine wilderness, the action of moving from one sphere to another actualized in her "flying leap." As in Crane's storylines, Eliza's actions are insignificant when taken on their own. However, the ability to physically escape presents an idealistic reality where it is possible to escape from the bottom of an ordered social hierarchy. Through the genre of protest fiction, this fragmentation of a corrupt order is presented in a positive way by Stowe. Yet Eliza's escape can be seen as encouraging damaging fragmentation through Social Darwinism, as it supports the idea that society is fundamentally structured as a hierarchy that favors white people. The order may cause suffering, but it is natural and this can only be changed by being questioned, by proposing that this structure is in fact unnatural. Focusing on the individual may arguably be unrealistic, because in a structure as large as the slave market, people are viewed as mass products. However, it is this very orientation that allows for a humanization of each character so that they are emotionally developed beyond their "rebellious slave woman" and "cowardly soldier" stereotypes. This therefore views their actions of fragmentation as acceptable and calls into question how it is established if one evolves out of society rather than gradually changing with it. The past and present exist as separate times, but the former constantly influences the latter. Using the influences of the past presents difficulties for the realist writer in maintaining the cohesion of a society which is not based on the difficulties - the fragmentations - of the present but which is preoccupied with the historical values ​​of the past. Before any combat, the army's only experience of war comes through myths: the stories of great movements [that] shook the country. They may not have been distinctly Homeric, but they seemed to contain a lot of glory. (Crane, p.4) By viewing nobility through the context of "tales" and not present life, it shows a desire to achieve this status in stories as well. While realistic writers attempt to represent events as they are, one difficulty lies in the fact that Crane's army is not even present in his own reality and seeks to fulfill the heroic fantasies of past wars. To go further, the story is retrospective and the army considers the retrospective to be legendary. Therefore, it becomes complicated to attempt to label Crane's novel as legendary or realistic. Crane's attempts hold together the current set of frightened soldiers with past ideals of "glory", unsustainable in themselves because they leave the soldiers unprepared when reacting to modern problems. Additionally, looking back can change perception; it “felt” glorious, but time can work to forget the pain and leave only honor. Another consequence of past influences is the use of clichés. In realism, we can affirm that the original languageshould be used to highlight a new, current sense of reality. If clichéd phrases are used and if “big movements” are aspired to, this highlights the repetition of past language and highlights its novel format. This challenge is complicated by the genre of war fiction; It is only because the experience and perhaps the words are not original that the emotions imbued in the words are. The horrors of war must therefore be so shocking in that they move the military away from the ideals of the past and into the very real possibility of death. While Crane proposes realism as flawed in his novel, Stowe goes further by almost completely rejecting realism through the past source of the Bible. Realism functions in a material, earthly sphere; by introducing religion, the story responds to a spiritual culture that transcends realism. Eva and Tom exist spiritually where the fragmentation caused by their human sin is maintained and even healed with the power of God and His word, residing only in the fragmented earthly society when slavery brings them back physically. Eva's ascension to heaven complicates realism because it transcends the physical, where it must function as a concept, to the metaphysical which cannot be described so specifically: Earth was the past, and the earthly pain; but so solemn, so mysterious was the triumphant radiance of that face… (Stowe, p.428) A characteristic of realism is too detailed a description; by omitting the pain of a death scene, he also omits any emotion that a reader could sympathize with and imagine in his reality. From here, the experience can only be considered realistic for those who are specifically religious, those who can believe that the spiritual exists among the real. Stowe also omits an emotional range. If the order of society is based on a defined range of emotions, fragmentation is caused by the replacement of feeling with something "mysterious", an unrecognizable state. Even the experience of death itself can be seen as moving away from realism, because only those who have experienced it can truly describe it. Thus, life can be seen as ordered through what is certain. Death, as a certainty, can then be seen as establishing order after a life of fragmentation of human choices. However, Eva's death was also the result of these Christian choices, and his ascension mirrors the Bible when "he left them and was caught up into heaven" (Luke 24:50). This similarity has limitations with the realistic novel, as the act is not only based on the past but on a spiritual experience that has difficulty being described with the language previously used for the material. Each story therefore constructs its characters partly in the past, in order to transcend today's fragmented society towards a higher ideal of religion or heroism. Through a self-aware style, and specifically irony, Crane mocks the development of youth from infancy to childhood. We wonder if a single fight is enough to bring about change. Michael Bell recognizes the "terrible power of established styles to determine consciousness"[1], suggesting that realism as an established and recognizable technique is limiting because it presents the same effect to every reader. Crane instead manipulates the concept and transcends the "established" effect through character development that suggests a new, dubious "consciousness" about the influence of war. Growth is visible everywhere, but the irony mocks the realistic concern for internal progress: “He felt a quiet virility, not very assertive but of robust and strong blood […] he was a man” (Crane, p. 109)., 1992)