The representation of the first world war in the American novel Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Doehler, James Harold, 1910- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 07:22:59 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553556 THE REPRESENTATION OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE AMERICAN NOVEL ■ . ■ v ' James Harold Doehler A Thesis aotsdited to the faculty of the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Co U e g e University of Arisom 1941 Director of Thesis e & a i m c > m J::-! - . V 3^ J , UF' Z" , r. •. TwiLgr-t. ' : fejCtm^L «••»«[?; ^ aJbtadE >1 *il *iv v I ; t. .•>#»>^ ii«;' .:r i»: s a * 3LXV>.Zj.. , 4 W i > l iie* L V W ?! df{t t*- * ? [ /?// TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ..... .......... < 1 II. NOVELS WRITTEN DURING THE WAR. 9 III. NOVELS WRITTEN DURING THE 1920*8 . 32 IV. DOS PASSOS, HEMINGWAY, AND CUMMINGS 60 V. NOVELS WRITTEN DURING THE 1930*8 . 85 VI. CONCLUSION ....................... 103 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................... 106 l a y 4 7 7 CHAPIER I niiRODUcnoa The purpose of this work is to discover the attitudes toward the first World War which were revealed in the American novel from 1914 to 1941. Books not strictly novels, if of sufficient import­ ance, have been included. The Spanish Civil War and the present world struggle' have been mentioned only if they were part of the work of a novelist who had also treated the first World War. The novels have conveniently fallen into three well-defined periods* (1) those written during the war; (2) those written during the 1920,s; (3) those written during the 1930*8. Novels that have con­ tinued the tendencies of an earlier period have been placed in that for­ mer period. For example, Willa Gather*s One of Ours, although published la the 1920*#, has been included in the chapter on books written during the war because it reflected so completely the war-time psychology. Similarly, Humphry Cobb* a Paths of Glory, published in the 1930* s, has been discussed under the novels written during the 1920* a, because it continued into a socially conscious age the attitudes of a previous period. A decade is a brief moment in literature, and one period nat­ urally melts into another. A book conceived, or actually written, in one period may not be published until the next# The number of ex­ ceptions in this division of the war novels is surprisingly few. The altered opinions of such writers as John Dos Passes, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Boyd, who wrote in two periods, reflect distinctly the 2 literary clicata of each period and prove conclusively tho validity of this division of the war novels, v i • The work of-Dos Petssos and Heningway, two Anericati war novelists of the first importance, has covered two periods, but in this thesis and E. E* Cusaings. ■ '• > , econonic, and intellectual back- enphasized. Ho writer can escape working with the naterial that exists in his world* An intimate knowledge of the life of a period as well as the writings, important and unimportant, reveals best what forces caused an author to tell his story as he did, or in the case of this thesis, to adopt a certain attitude toward war. The historical method explains a work as a rounded whole, and the work* a dependence upon the , events of the day. In "Warning to Pre-War Novellatsn Robert Cantwell writes* v . ; • ; " ---:y-c - tiio [the noveliot* a] general picture must square with Uie literal living history of his tine, and his drams - the motives he ascribes to people, - the potentialities he sees in then - nuat line up with tiie actual conduct of the m s a e s as it be- coaes known in tines of crisisA The clianges in the "actual conduct of tho Basses" and the reflection of these changes 1m toe war novels provide not only the divisions of this work but also tho writers* very attitudes toward war. The purpose of this introductory chapter is to give a brief his­ tory of the treatment of war in literature and to trace the growth of 1 1 fiobert Cantwell, "Warning to Pre-War Novelists," New Republic. 91 (June 23. 1937). 179. 3 the present-day attitude, toward war. Before the twentieth century war in .literature- was- invari&Wy surrounded by an aura of ronance and sentiment* The heroic Beowulf, Chaucer* s Knight, Malory* s King Arthur, and Scott* s colorful heroes mowed ia-e pageant that served as a background for acts of . high cour­ age. As in Tennyson* s The Charge of the Light Brigade« men rode to death and glory without the slightest question. The conduct of war the heavy artillery. S. K. linther explains the treatment of warfare in literature* - v From the days of Homer to the time of Halter Scott war was a theme that lent itself to heroic treat- , sent. The hero went forth to battle for a noble cause and he returned victorious, o r ' if he failed v \ to return he did the next best thing,.he gave his life for freedom, liberty, love, religion, or some ideal that was furthered by bis sacrifice.1 Criticism of war was scattered, and sporadic at best. No great body.-of-jeeteBt appeared' before .the first World War. But as Edmund Wilson points out, many writers might be listed as. opposing war.1 2 To name, a few* Homer described the ignominies as well as the glories of battles Aristophanes bitterly satirized war*a absurdities?.men of letters from Dante to gant give considerable thought to peace in Europe j Shakespeare loathed the groans of the dying and the harsh noises in what he called in Tlmon of Athens "contumelious, beastly, mad-brain* d war;" Erasmus, depicted the follies of religious conflicts; Voltaire 1 S.. K. Wlather. The Realistic War Hovel, n. 7. 2 Edmund’Wilson, "The Anatomy of War," The Dial. 75 (July, 1923), 4 despised the vx-uisxuj VJL u v ^uvu. u > euiu JLAitcu^Ljf, even the famous victory of Blenheim. To between these writers* methods and that of a onlsr tb imagine how the modern novelist might .. v n u m u 1 •'•Vv-v , The seeds of the realistic mst-mmmX' the • French Revolution. i- that traveled Europe and bargained with various thing aa pateriotiea. In 'W To retaia the gains of the Revolution, the French middle class formed a national army. Deliberate propaganda pbrtani of all, compulsory military service was . enforced for all citizens during peace a m ar. This was the system upon which Napoleon r- c * , • ■';>*- ■ : : . - - ~ . -■ ' ■ '• • - ^ ^ --v..,*7. ' . .'.-•••v ; depended to invade Spain an it world doctrine that a nation has the right to conscript its men, its money, and its private resources for war. Instead of a few isolated bands-fighting wlth? crossbows, the feelings and lives of multitudes were affected. The results of war were magnified and made as clear to all as a Goya- etching. 1 J. A. T. (March 6 5 A strange disenchantment struck men of letters, slowly at first but irrevocably and completely after the first World War, , Important in the early reflection of this changed attitude were-the following writerat ; Stendhal, who stripped war of .much of. its glamourj Tolstoy, , who concentrated on the insignificant detail of battlej Zola, who pic­ tured the intense suffering caused by war; and the American, Stephen Cram#, who described the unheroic thoughts of a sensitive soldier in the Civil War* . These men, however, were the exceptions♦ . The great body of literature that followed the Civil War, for example, was drenched in sentimentality and melodrama* Thucydides once warned that any war in which men were fighting was thought to be the world1 s greatest and most important* He then went on to show why the Peloponnesian was just that* Nevertheless, the first World War, which completed the disillusionment begun after the French Revolution, reached new heights in several respects. In the. first place, it continued the tendency of affecting the whole of society as no war ever had* Rugene Lohrke writes* But the Great War had this W distinguish it from other conflicts in history - that it mobilized not only more men and natural resources than any before , it", but that it crjpu^aMti e i W F p w i M b e currant of thought and feeling as well*1. ; Next, the bloodshed of tiie war was unprecedented* .Before criticis­ ing the omnipresence of mere horrer in the realistic war novel, one should remember the actual facts*. S. K. Winther explains* Eugene Lohrke, ed., Arms 6 The total casualties of the World War were over 37,000,000. If the literature of this conflict is to interpret what such a struggle meant in the lives of the individuals who fought the battles it must use strong langugage. It is natural that the world of the war novel should emphasize moat of all such colors as crimson, red, and black, that the atmos­ phere should always be dark and oppressive, that , olfactory images, should be common...and that every­ where an attempt should be made to create the impression of suffering through the use of kines­ thetic imagery.1 Among implements used for the first time in war were the aero­ plane, submarine, armored tank, machine gun, liquid fire, hand grenade, and poison gas.