Love in Modern and Postmodern American Literature

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main Text
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The concept of love can be traced in numerous works of modern and postmodern writers. Love was not hard to write about, since this was something most of the writers went through themselves; they experienced this “feeling born of admiration of something you think lovely in the object of it, accompanied by a wish to make that object happy” (Story 17), and created their works to perpetuate this feeling of admiration. Both prose and poetry aimed at expressing feelings and emotions; sometimes love subjects could be observed directly but sometimes the writers tried to hide it behind no less eternal concepts of friendship or family relations. Some people keep to the point that works of three writers, namely, Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded-Six Bits”, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I, being born a woman”, and “Winter Dreams” by Scott F. Fitzgerald are ordinary love stories, whereas others see something deeper than mere expression of love in them. It is necessary to consider these three pieces of writing in order to find out to which extent they express the concept of love and how they depict the time they were written in.

Main Text

What should be considered first of all is Zora Neale Hurston’s story “The Gilded-Six Bits” because different subjects, including love, greediness, and jealousy are intertwined in it. At the beginning of “The Gilded-Six Bits” looks like a love story, describing a young couple, Missie and Joe, and their tender feelings to each other. The concept of love can be felt throughout the first pages when the life of this couple is depicted. They are madly in love with each other and every day Missie is waiting for her husband to come back home from work and to start throwing silver dollars in the door for her to pick them up later. Love depicted in this story is not passionate but it gives the reader a feeling of joy and happiness for Missie and Joe. However, with the introduction of another character, Ottis D. Slemmons, an extremely rich white man, the concepts of greediness and jealousy arise, and Missie cheats on her husband with Slemmons simply because the latter offers the golden money she has never possessed before. This shows that her desire for gold was much stronger than the feelings to her husband; at this, Joe’s feelings seem to be more endurable for he managed to forgive his wife’s unfaithfulness and to live further. The story depicts lives of African American people at the beginning of the twentieth century and the author resorts to slang language to make the atmosphere as close as possible to the original: “Woman ain’t got no business in a man’s clothes nohow” (Hoffmann 1714). “The Gilded-Six Bits” depicts the times the story was written in quite accurately, for it shows the richness of white people and poverty of the black ones.

Second to consider is Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I, being born a woman”, the poem, which is filled with love, passion, and sufferings of a woman. Among the three pieces of writing this one, perhaps, expresses the concept of love to the biggest extent. The poem itself expresses contrast between closeness and distance; this is familiar to people who at least once in their lives were in love. The distance which separates two lovers is sometimes unbearable and the utmost desire to be with a beloved person is irresistible. The lines “To bear your body’s weight upon my breast: / So subtly is the fume of life designed” (Hoffmann 1805) let the reader know about physical intimacy between the woman, who is the speaker, and her lover. The distance can be felt in the second part of the poem in the concluding lines “I find this frenzy insufficient reason / For conversation when we meet again” (Hoffmann 1805) which sound cold and dry. This transition from passion to sudden indifference produces an immense effect on the readers making them wonder what the reason for such abrupt change of attitude was. Apart from the concept of love and relations, the poem expresses the concept of women’s independence. The line “I, being born a woman” (Hoffmann 1805) emphasizes the gender of the speaker and points to the discrimination the women experienced at the beginning of the twentieth century (when, actually, the poem was written). The author wanted to depict women’s fight for their rights in 1920 when they still were unequal with men. It is an accurate depiction of the period of time in American history when women fought for equality.

And, finally, “Winter Dreams” by Scott F. Fitzgerald is no less impressive in depicting the concept of love than two pieces of writing discussed above. The concept of love is realized through Dexter and Judy’s relationships but it seems that love is not the subject of the story. Dexter had feelings to Judy but what he was driven with was the desire to possess her. She was his “winter dream”, an unrealized dream, he has been striving to fulfill throughout his life. However, Judy, spoiled from her childhood, did not value their relationships, and, while staying with Dexter, had love affairs with other men. Certain passion can be observed in their relations at the beginning: “He dared scarcely to breathe, he had the sense that she was exerting some force upon him…” (Hoffmann 1831), but this turned out to be not enough for Judy to give herself all up to the relations. Dexter was just a toy for her, something that amused and entertained her. This story reveals perfectly the times it was written in. Living in large mansions and playing golf was what was typical for rich American people of those times; Judy is a typical representative of the upper class society who once rejected her lover only because he was “poor as a church mouse” (Hoffmann 1831). The story also reflects the values of American society, namely, American people’s being career oriented; this is true of Dexter who started working as a caddy but then became a successful businessman.

Conclusion

Taking into consideration everything mentioned above, it can be concluded that love was one of the most widespread subjects of modern and postmodern American literature. Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded-Six Bits”, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I, being born a woman”, and “Winter Dreams” by Scott F. Fitzgerald depict love affairs of their characters and express the concept of love in the best possible way. At the same time each of the stories reflects life of American people in the times they were written in with the first story depicting the life of African Americans, the second telling about women’s fight for their rights and the third portraying career pursuit typical for American people of all times.

Works Cited

Hoffmann, G. From Modernism to Postmodernism: Concepts and Strategies of Postmodern American Fiction. Rodopi, 2005

Story, R. Love and Literature. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008

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Love in Modern and Postmodern American Literature

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