Let me quickly finish a thought from class. As I was saying, the difference between monotheistic and polytheistic religions is that, on the one hand, monotheistic religions are better at promoting benevolence amongst large groups of people who belong to the religion, which polytheistic religions, which tend to be more localized, don’t do as well; on the other hand, monotheistic religions tend to be much crueler to those outside the religion, since they’re denying the One True God, while polytheistic religions are better at basic pluralism. The weakness of polytheism is what sets Umuofia up to collapse, because its people turn on it, allowing the crueler aspects of monotheism to overrun it. Okonkwo, then, is only half a hero, for while he stands up for his people, his attitudes are precisely what drove so many of them to side with the Europeans.
Anyway, here’s our prompt for the three short stories–pick any of the three, and answer this question: would you call this story “realistic,” and why?
Incidentally, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” was inspired by this song, which is why the story is dedicated to Bob Dylan. Also, “The Swimmer” was adapted into a big-budget film in 1968 starring the aging but still A-List star Burt Lancaster. They did some different things with it than Cheever did to stretch it out to full length, but if you want to get a sense for the look of the period, the trailer might give you the idea. (You can watch the whole movie, too, albeit with the picture flipped, on Youtube.)
Anyway, here are some other writers similar to our three for Thursday–
Post-Faulkner Southern Writers (like O’Connor): Tennessee Williams (playwright, major works A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie)
Carson McCullers (fiction writer, major work The Heart is a Lonely Hunter)
Eudora Welty (short story writer, “Why I Live at the P.O.”)
Katharine Anne Porter (short story writer, major work “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”)
Walker Percy (novelist, major work The Moviegoer)
New Yorker/Esquire Writers (like Cheever and Oates): J. D. Salinger (fiction writer, major works Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories)
John Updike (fiction writer, major works the Rabbit series, “A&P”)
Raymond Carver (short story writer, major works “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and “Cathedral”)
Alice Munro (short story writer, major work “Rings of Saturn”)
Dennis Johnson (fiction writer, major work Jesus’ Son)