Sinclair lewis's Writing Characteristics

Lewis is good at mocking "the American way of life". He is good at satirizing by means of detail description and language description. He is full of irony and humor, and his style is rough and straightforward. This is also one of the important features of American new literature.

materialism

The pursuit of materialism is a typical embodiment of American pragmatic culture. In sinclair lewis's novels, interests affect all aspects of social life, and the pursuit of interests is almost the center of everyone's action. In Babbitt's view, the purpose of people's education is not to learn, but to make money, which is "the contribution of the vitality and foresight of American business society to educational science". In order to attract students, the family self-study course tutorial class distributes advertising leaflets. In order to attract more students and get the maximum benefits, advertisers seize people's enthusiasm for making money, publicize their own courses on advertising leaflets and help others make money. "Right above the first picture is a symbol that inspires education-not an outdated lampshade, torch or owl of Minerva, the god of wisdom, but a row of dollar symbols." In order to attract customers, some advertisements use "money! Money! Money! " . Education and interest are directly linked. The pursuit of interests makes people more impetuous, and short-term rapid learning is more attractive than spending a lot of time studying. All men, women and children can learn to play the piano, banjo, cornet, clarinet, saxophone, violin or drum through music, and learn solfeggio without tiring practice, special training or long-term research.

In his novels, sinclair lewis reflects the conflict and alienation of interests between people, and the relationship between people can only be maintained by interests, which Lewis criticized. In a materialistic society, people are selfish, covet material enjoyment and let material dominate themselves. In order to succeed and get rich, people can attack their peers by hook or by crook. Communicating with people is also for the purpose of obtaining benefits. Those who can bring benefits and benefits to themselves will take the initiative to communicate and please; On the contrary, it is perfunctory. There are only cold interests between people.

standardization

Standardization and consistency were a bad social phenomenon at that time. Taking Babbitt's experience as an example, sinclair lewis strongly criticized standardization and consistency. Their strength is so strong that it has become people's spiritual shackles. Some people are bound by it without feeling, but enjoy it. Although others are aware of this annoying restriction, they have no choice but to endure it. This is the target of sinclair lewis's attack.

culture

Novels such as Lewis's Main Street vividly reproduce the American social life style in the 1920s. At that time, the United States was in the process of changing from a society dominated by production to a society dominated by consumption. Young people who represent the trend of modern culture and conservative traditional culture have had fierce conflicts and confrontations, and a series of "extraordinary events" with paranoia have emerged. At that time, there were two main phenomena in the literary world: one was the howells-style whitewashed and gentle "town myth" which occupied the mainstream position, and the other was the special literary landscape of the "lost generation" who were dissatisfied with the conservative cultural atmosphere in China and exiled themselves to Paris. It is through the profound experience, careful observation and rational thinking of Lewis's long-term infiltrated culture that he bravely stood up with the courage of a fighter, which is different from the popular narrative style of praising at that time and explaining the lost narrative style by escaping from reality and breaking ideals and dreams, and describes the lifestyle presented by the national cultural characteristics of "combining idealism and pragmatism" that he felt the most. Because its rebellious cultural narrative is closely combined with the special cultural history in the 1920s, it vividly and truly reflects the significance, beliefs and values enjoyed by national culture in this special period. Therefore, its views have been widely recognized, which has had a great influence and become a part of national cultural consciousness. All these achievements are by no means groundless, and are inextricably linked with the writer Lewis's growing experience since childhood. Although Lewis's growing environment also has some defects, such as the early death of his biological mother and his father's incomprehension and dissatisfaction with the surrounding environment, it is more of a kind of care, a strong thirst for knowledge and a journey of wandering in the sea of books. It is a tempering process of observing the environment carefully, dissecting the environment sharply, and then changing the environment. The harvest is not hate, but extraordinary observation, accurate expression, profound knowledge reserve, strong sense of social responsibility, willpower and rebellious spirit of pursuing beauty and exposing ugliness. Sinclair lewis, an American, created a new style-American style on the fertile soil of intensive national culture, and sinclair lewis became the pioneer of American literature.

feminism

The female problem in Lewis's novels has also attracted the attention of contemporary critics. Lewis's famous work "Main Street" tells the story through a woman's consciousness and her contradictory mentality. In the same year that Main Street was published, American women won the right to vote, which was a time when the feminist movement was in full swing in history. Today, feminist or women's studies have become an important topic in cultural studies. In this famous novel, Lewis chooses women as the protagonist, which reflects several aspects of American life after World War I: the contradiction between career and family, the change of women's cognitive attitude and the rebellion against traditional gender roles in this era of political liberation and social change. Therefore, Main Street can also be regarded as a feminist novel. Except Main Street, Career, Ann Wiggers and Cass Timberline (1945) all express the theme that women don't want to be "accessories", but seek themselves in a patriarchal society. In the 1920s, whether married women had the right to work was a hot topic. Especially in Career, Lewis takes You Na Golden, a professional woman, as the protagonist of the novel, showing readers her frustrated experience in pursuing her career, clearly supporting women's equal employment rights and opposing double standards in gender. Many of his ideas predate the feminist consciousness in the 1960s. The feminist themes in Lewis's works are very rich and need to be further explored and studied. Lewis's novels are definitely not works that only highlight cultural significance but lack artistry. Martin Baku pointed out that Lewis tried to make American novels both an artistic depiction and a serious criticism of American life. And as Robert McLabrin said, Lewis's novels are so outstanding not because of his aesthetic defects, but because of his artistic achievements.

symbolic

The people and things created by Lewis in his novels often have symbolic and universal significance, such as Avenue in Main Street and Babbitt in Babbitt. Lewis extracted some of the most representative stories from American cultural groups such as towns and businesses, and used narrative strategies suitable for their cultural forms to show them in his novels. Because the stories it tells vividly and truly reflect the meanings, beliefs and values enjoyed by these cultural groups, its views have been widely recognized. Members who agree include members within the culture and members outside the culture. Lewis's cultural narrative has turned the intangible customs that only people can experience and feel into tangible customs, which has been widely recognized by members of all ethnic cultures in the English-speaking world. For example, "main street" generally refers to a typical small town resident characterized by conservatism and narrowness, and a place or environment characterized by narrow local concepts and utilitarianism. Babbiti (Babbitism, Babbitery) has become synonymous with middle-class industrialists who are complacent, vulgar, short-sighted and conservative. As Phelan said, these narratives of Lewis can also change in a large range, and its cultural members can completely subvert them in line with the characteristics of these customs, which is the purpose of Lewis's cultural narrative.

Detail description

The detailed description of things in sinclair lewis's works is actually conveying an important message. Every detail of things makes the protagonist unconsciously infatuated, and every kind of conscious and unconscious infatuation with things is a manifestation of desire. Many of sinclair lewis's novels not only express their infatuation with things, but also express a kind of vigilance and worry. In sinclair lewis's novels, the description of materialism and material worship involved all aspects of American social life at that time. For example, in the novel Babbitt, Babbitt has a deep tendency of material worship. Babbitt's house is full of unnecessary things. The alarm clock he uses is the best in the country, all modern accessories, imitating the bell of the cathedral, and even the clock face is luminous. Almost all of Mrs Babbitt's cosmetics are pure silver. Babbitt's bedroom bed is an expensive modern mattress, with a standard bedside book on the table. Just like a never-turned-over bedside book on a desk, these goods are not necessary for people. These goods that meet Babbitt's false needs make him very happy. He is full of pride in his home full of all kinds of goods. Babbitt has an exquisite snow chrysanthemum igniter. Babbitt looked forward to this igniter for a week, and finally bought it in order to save money and time in lighting matches. Many people are full of love for this igniter. Babbitt's customers also praised this and excitedly discussed the details of the igniter with Babbitt. Buying goods can't satisfy Babbitt's admiration for material things. He also sang praises to all mechanical instruments, thinking that they are symbols of truth and beauty. The false demand for commodities makes people slaves of commodities. Commodities are not produced because of people's needs. People live to consume commodities. The more goods people have, the more happiness they get, and people become fetishists completely.

narrate

In the past, the academic circles thought that Lewis's novels were not artistic or inferior. Some people thought that Lewis's novels were a mixture of realism and satirical literature, but the revelation of diversified narrative strategies of modern realism promoted the understanding of Lewis's novels. This shows that Lewis's novels are not short of artistry, let alone inferior artistry, but have quite advanced narrative strategies.

The greatest advantage of connecting-developing-breaking-connecting diversified narrative lines is that they can put the characters in the external real world and connect with various individuals and social groups in life, such as art, science, religion, politics, business, periphery, center, intolerance, complacency, etc., thus vividly presenting various real life scenes and embodying "the fusion of idealism and pragmatism"

The cultural narration of the national cultural characteristics deeply felt by Lewis is successful, and its success lies in his contribution to the narrative art. His modernist realistic narrative characteristics and the establishment of multiple narrative strategies provide a powerful means of expression for him to profoundly reveal the characteristics of national culture. Lewis skillfully mastered this tool and vividly described the colorful lifestyle presented by American culture.