THE EPISODE: A MAJOR PICTIONxIL DEVICE USEI3 BY THOMAS WOLFE by IVA PARR POSTER, B.S. in Ed. A THESIS IN ENGLISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial J\Alfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OP ARTS Approved August, 1970 ICI7P ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am deeply indebted to Dr. J. T. McCullen for his competent and patient guidance throughout the preparation of this thesis. 11 rv TABLE OP CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE EPISODE AND CHARACTER DELINEATION 7 III. THE EPISODE AND THE SITUATION 21 IV. THE EPISODE AND THEME 37 V. THE EPISODE AND HUMOR 47 VI. CONCLUSION 56 NOTES 61 BIBLIOGRAPHY 67 ill ( CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Much has been written about the degree of craftsman­ ship in Thomas Wolfe's writings. "Craftsmanship" is used here because even Bernard De Voto has admitted that Wolfe had a tale to tell. It is the way in v/hich V/olfe related his story that has caused so much controversy. Certainly his approach v/as not in keeping v/ith the Hemingway mode of his day. Those who oppose Wolfe's writing technique often do so on the basis of the trends of the 1920's and 1930's. Thus, his rhetoric, repetitions, long sentences, poetic philosophy, and continuous analogies repel many critics. Mr. De Voto says of Wolfe: "The novelist makes his point in the lives of his characters, not in the tidal surges of rhetoric." Other critics find enough merit in Wolfe's style about which to write. Floyd C. Watkins writes about the Southern rhetoric of Wolfe as a part of Wolfe's poetic language. Richard Walser maintains that \mity is present in Wolfe's novels through thematic treat­ ment. Others write of V/olfe's humor, his first novel as a development (initiation) novel, and about his symbolic patterns. Assuming that V/olfe* s "genius" is already established, and that various elements of his style have been outlined by several critics, perhaps the student should look for the main strength in Wolfe's works. Richard V/alser views Y/olfe's style as distinctive: "... he did not write in terms of stories supplied with the expected pseudo-plots and conventional paraphernalia. He wished, rather, to fol­ low life with its seemingly patternless movements, and he did not push for ansv/ers v/ith v/hich experience had not 2 provided him." Critics refer repeatedly to V/olfe*s writings in terms of experience. To those who knew him best, his "seemingly pattern- less movements" of life are described as episodes. Maxwell Perkins wrote that it was "that wonderful night scene in the cafe where Ben was with the Doctors, and Horse Hines, the undertaker, came in"-^ v/hich really moved him to finish reading that first manuscript. Mr. Perkins explains that most of the editing of Look Homeward, Angel involved reor­ ganization rather than cutting. As an example, he recounts that Wolfe had used two similar episodes together and that they needed to be separated to achieve the full effect of each. Edv/ard Asv/ell, editor of Wolfe's last works, inti­ mates how important revision was to V/olfe in later years: "Par more often than not I found that there would be at least two different versions of the same episode, and sometimes there were as many as four or five versions." Aswell also felt that, since Wolfe's chronology was ordered mainly by his own experience, he was free to skip from one episode to another, rather than to v/rite straight through a work: Yesterday he might have been working on some­ thing out of the Brooklyn period of his life, but if in the night his mind happened to go back thirty years to some remembered episode of his childhood, he v/ould get up today to work on that, and the Brooklyn material would be laid aside until he felt like returning to it. In this way he might cover within a month various unrelated events and characters v/idely scattered throughout the time cycle of his story. In this way, too, while v/riting the individual parts he was also working on the whole thing all the time.5 Prom the comments of V/alser, Perkins, and Asv/ell, one might conclude that Y/olfe's materials come almost directly from personal experience and that he wrote these experiences into episodes, which v/ere later organized into stories and novels. Wolfe constantly used the episode as a writing tool. It was through episodes that he achieved the real flavor of setting, the essence of character, and his various moods. These episodes he recognized as coming from his own experi­ ence. As he said of Look Homeward, Angel in The Story of a Novel: "I had written ray book, more or less, directly from the experience of my own life. ..." More specifi­ cally, he wrote in a letter to his mother about events which >> I' I he remembered and planned to use. The following appeared in distinct pieces of his writings: I think of an old man in the grip of a terrible disease, who thought he was afraid to die, but who died like a warrior in an epic poem. I think of a boy of twenty-six years heaving his life away, and gasping to regain it, I think of the frightened glare in his eyes and the way he seizes my hands, and cries "V/hat have you come home for.*' ... I think of the devotion of a woman of frail physique to a father. I have tried to make myself conscious of the whole of my life since first the baby in the basket became conscious of the warm sunlight on the porch, and saw his sister go up the hill to the girl*s school on the corner (the first thing I remember).? Furthermore, The Story of a Novel, V/olfe's narrative about the writing of his second book, is also episodic. He did not use the word *'episode" to describe his approach; but, because his writing was always based on experience, he could not record the creation of his v/orks without relying upon the various incidents he realized. Not only is the episode important as Wolfe's means of conveying character, mood, setting, and theme, but it might also be used as the critic's means to observe the development of V/olfe's craftsmanship. A comparison of his first novel and his last one affords a contrast between his earlier and his later style of writing. In Look Homeward, Angel, several hundred episodes are used, mainly to portray characters and setting. Many of the episodes are so similar that a catalogue effect results. In You Can't Go Home Again, economy is practiced; consequently, approxi­ mately the same number of episodes is used to a greater effect. One example of this effectiveness is the v/ay George's encounter with McHarg relates to the fame theme. A study of the episode as V/olfe used it in Look Homeward, Angel, in You Can't Go Home Again, and in a few of his stories reveals that the episode is the real strength of his writings, and that the development of V/olfe's episodic technique reveals the development of his writing technique in general. Since the episode is an important device in Y/olfe's writing style, a study of the way he used this device should offer enlightenment to the Wolfean student. Although some critics have mentioned the episode in relation to Wolfe's fiction, there has been no extensive study of his applica­ tion of it. One short article provides a study of Wolfe's humor through a look at various episodes in Look Homeward, o Angel. It is hoped that a similar study of additional works and additional components of fiction will prove satisfactory. The episode, as referred to in the following pages, may be defined informally as an incident within a novel or a story which is complete in itself. The elements to be treated are placed into the categories of (1) the episode and character delineation, (2) the episode and the situation, (3) the episode and theme, (4) the episode and humor. CPL'LPTER II THE EPISODE AND CHARACTER DELINEATION One can hardly talk about Thomas Wolfe without some mention of autobiographic elements in his fiction. His first book. Look Homeward, Angel, is especially noted for Wolfe's early tendency to use his experience directly and with little disguise, as he suggests in The Story of a Novel: "But I also believe now that the young writer is often led through inexperience to a use of the materials of life which are, perhaps, somewhat too naked and direct for the purpose of a work of art. The thing a young writer is likely to do is to confuse the limits between actuality q and reality." Maxwell Perkins recalls for us his realiza­ tion that the characters of that first book are real: ... I suddenly saw that it was often almost literally autobiographical—that these people in it were his people. I am sure my face took on a look of alarm, and Tom saw it and he said, •But Mr. Perkins, you don't understand. I think these people are great people and that they should be told about.'^^ By the end of his career, however, Mr. V/olfe displays a more stylized mode in the presentation of his characters. As suggested in The Story of a Novel, he has learned to aim for the general quality and the traits of his characters.