The Inability to Escape One's Social Class: a Social Issue

An overarching social issue in the different genres of British literature that we read that I noticed was the inability to escape the social class that you were born into. This seemed to be an apparent theme in all of the genres that we read. This is something that I was unfamiliar with, having only read mostly American literature where you can rise from poverty all the way to West Egg. In many of the poems and novels, this issue was not directly addressed. It is something that I have simply observed that seems to lie within many texts that we have read. This issue of inability to escape one’s social or economic class is problematic for me as an American reader because I have grown up reading and being submerged in a culture that promotes, and often encourages, people to work hard to move on up the ladder.

            Starting in the Romantic Era, a prime example of inability to escape one’s social class is The Chimney Sweeper. In this poem William Blake describes a young boy who is sold by his parents to a chimney sweeping company. This poem describes the miserable life as a chimney sweeper and the awful conditions that they work in that inevitably leads the working children to their death. The fact that a boy’s parents are forced to sell their son to a chimney sweeping company leads me to believe that he comes from a poor family who could use every last dime they could get. It is clear that little Tom Dacre will not have a fair chance of making a steady living sweeping people’s chimneys and eventually work his way up to the top of the company and retire a rich man after sweeping for several years. On the contrary, we learn the little Tom Dacre will, soon, die a chimney sweeper, never having the chance to advance from a low social standing to a higher social class.

            In the Victorian Era, a clear example of the inability to escape social class is shown in Dickens’ A Walk in the Workhouse. In this short story, Dickens attempts to draw sympathy from the reader on the lower class people in this workhouse. He successfully does this by given detailed descriptions of the different kinds of people that are in the workhouse. He describes this congregation as having few “young women, and beetle-browned young men; but not many” but “aged people were there in every variety” (751, Broadview Anthology). The description of all the different types of old people and their disabilities leads the reader to the fact that these are people who have been in the workhouse for their entire lives, and the abundance of elderly people show that there is no escape from their poverty.

            Finally, in the 20^th Century we get another, perhaps the clearest, example of the inability for people to escape their social class. In E.M. Forster’s novel, A Passage to India, we see an obvious social divide between the colonized Indians and the Anglo Indians. A direct example of this conflict is when two friends, one Indian (Aziz) and the other British (Fielding), are discussing their friendship at the end of the book. In their last dialogue, Aziz claims that he and Fielding cannot be friends and it is clear that the reason for this is because Fielding is of a different social class that Aziz. They cannot be friends because one is a colonizer and the other is the colonized, which creates an inequality between the two that neither can escape due to their nationality. In conclusion, the texts that we have read this semester all seem to carry the theme of the inability to escapes one’s social class, regardless of the time period or genre it was written in.

War and Poverty

Writers, no matter their time period, like to write about the beauty and the life they see around them. Nature and the everyday human life was the most common topic of the romantic’s era that hasn't yet disappeared. More than anything writers seem to write about social issues. Issues such as war, and poverty and oppression because these issues never seem to completely disappear. For example, an evaluation of the everyday working life of man can be seen in "Song to the Men of England" in 1819 and in "Inglan Is a Bitch" written in 1991. There is one hundred and seventy two years between these two poems and yet both address the unfair difference in the life of the working poor.  "Men of England, wherefore plough/ For the lords who lay ye low?/ Wherefore weave with toil and care/ The rich robes your tyrants wear?" (pg 412) and "mi know dem have work, work in abundant/ yet still, dem mek mi redundant/ now, at fifty-five mi gettin' quite ol'/ yet still, dem sen' mi fi goh draw dole." (pg 1599)  Both of these poems address the unfair conditions of the working poor. In “Song to the Men of England” the poet is addressing those poor men who were working in a time of economic depression and social turmoil following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. This poem is a call to arms to force change I the social and economic order. In “Inglan Is a Bitch” the speaker is bemoaning the unfairness of the working conditions for immigrants. In the passage quoted above the man was laid off after fifteen years of hard work and had to receive welfare at fifty-five. He ends the poem with the line “is why wi a goh dhu ‘bout it?” which seems as though it could also be a call to arms.

War is another social issue poets commonly write about, mostly because it’s an all encompassing topic that happens over and over simply due to human nature. Lord Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Bridgade” is probably one of the most famous of the Crimean War’s resulting poetry. World War One and World War Two and the Crimean War are a few that have poetry written for them. Even the modern wars in Iraq and Afghanastan, soldiers write about their experiences. Some topics are universal. Sadly enough, war and poverty seem to be some of them.

Significance Between High and Low Brow Modernism

The idea of aesthetics and literary form, in a modernist frame of criticism, usually refers to the commonly employed methods of fragmentation, prose poetry, and the intentional blurring of the lines between what is read as a short story and what is read as poetic verse. One obvious example would be T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland; a poem traditionally viewed as a holistically modernist innovation to the prototypical poetic paradigms of the time. However, there is an important, distinct divide between Eliot's kind of modernism - which sought to showcase and give praise to the author's educational background - and what other modernist writers of his era sought to interpret modernism as; such as Steinbeck, who wrote what we now call "middle" or "low brow" modernism. 

This difference in high and low modernism constitutes not only a change in the voice of the text, but an inevitable metamorphosis on the page in terms of line length, line breaks, purposefully placed vernacular, and overall structure of any given modernist text. A great example of this would be to contrast The Wasteland against Linton Kwesi Johnson's "Inglan is a Bitch", a modernistic innovation we have come to call 'dub poetry'. Parallels can be drawn by simply examining each text against their author's social and economic environments, and the respective innovations therein; Eliot drew inspirations from the learned classical literature he was trained of, while Johnson instead drew guidance from the rich musical culture he in which was immersed.

Such a shift in literary form over the centuries of what scholars call the modernist movement is critical to what many writers today have implemented into their own writing voices. Authors like Joyce, Eliot, Auden, and others, paved the way for countless experimental moves taken not only by contemporary professionals, but by amateurs like myself and my classmates. Modernity shows its influence in many of the student's works who claim Hemingway or Fitzgerald as inspirations. I know that these are American writers, and not British, but if I've learned anything by taking the two survey classes in the same semester it's that modernism was shared between the British and Americans in a lot of ways. Overall, it's this change in literary form that obscures lines and brings new questions for the reader when interpreting a text - and it's all thanks to time, culture, and the non-stop human nature of evolving. 

Literature and Culture

The literature of a certain time period seems to reflect the culture the more I learn and understand the various societal influences and contexts of different works. Within the Romantic era and up to modern movements of the early twentieth century, there seem to be many various changes within the British culture that effect the writings prevalent at that time.  From the dreamy poetic language and imagery in much of the literature of the Romantic period, a sense of longing is present. The Victorian Era addresses stereotypical gender roles, especially in Northanger Abbey showing a female protagonist can act on her own volition. The works of the twentieth century stray away from Gothic tales to focus on the serious issues at hand, like war or colonialism.

Since a function of literature is a way to reflect the society of the time, it would seem that the natural progression of changes within writing was closely intertwined with the happenings of the culture. The Romantic and Gothic movements served a space for escape from the surrounding world. However, poems like "The Chimney Sweeper" by William Blake acted as a way to address child labor in a personal narrative of orphans slaving away in grimy, unhealthy conditions. In comparison, Wordsworth's ability to captivate the reader through dreamy imagery while addressing issues was more of an indirect commentary to the issues at bay.

As time progressed to the twentieth century, the ever looming threat of war and the reality of loss brought out harsh realities in literature. In particular, T.S. Elliot's "The Wasteland" unfolded as an intense snapshot of the feelings of the people of England in WWI. Through it's depressing sense of loss and longing for a new start, the poem, riddled with allusions and metaphors, describes a culture desperate to escape the harsh realities of war. Throughout the couple hundred years of literature we read, issues being addressed reflect the voices of the oppressed, those in despair and those that wish to entertain. One of the biggest things I noticed through the progression of time was the way issues were addressed. The earlier works wrote around issues, while the future addressed them head on. Urgency and the severity of issues seems to effect the approach as much as the content that is being addressed.

Oppression of Minorities Throughout Literary Periods

            One social issue that has remained prevalent, though at varying degrees, throughout the literary periods we have studied in class is the oppression of minorities. The treatment of this issue by writers, however, has changed dramatically over the decades.

            In the Victorian Period, the racist ideas of whites living in Great Britain were spoken and written about without shame. Whites felt that it was their duty to civilize those underneath themselves; they felt superior to other ethnicities. This notion can be seen in Thomas Babington Macaulay’s “Minute on Indian Education”, where he states that, “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” Macaulay perpetuates racism and justifies it by saying that it is necessary to teach Indians western values because Great Britain is India’s ruler.

In contrast, the Early Twentieth Century contains the novel A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. This novel does not advocate racism. It takes place in India and includes characters of color, who are not made to be bad characters; however, the protagonist is still white, and many of the other main characters are as well. Also, the novel, although providing a new perspective for its predominantly white readers, was written by a white male who had only traveled to India twice. This demonstrates just the extent to which people of color were still marginalized during this time period.

One of the most significant differences between the Late 21^st Century and earlier periods is that we see more and more works written by authors of color. These authors finally have the chance to speak out about their situation in life and the difficulties they may have encountered. In 1991, Jamaica-born poet Linton Kwesi Johnson published “Inglan Is a Bitch.” This dub poem depicts the troubles that Johnson encounters while living in London. In lines 35 to 36, he writes, “dem seh dat black man is very lazy / but if y’u si how mi work y’u woulda seh mi crazy.” Johnson is frustrated by the fact that he is not appreciated for the hard work he does. Clearly, although people of color are not restricted by as many racist laws as before, they still face maltreatment based on the color of their skin. Another poem, titled “In My Country” and also published in 1991, discusses the way that non-whites are subject to scrutiny and questioning solely based on how they look. The author of this poem is Jackie Kay, a half-Nigerian, half-white woman. She writes that, “a woman passed round me / in a slow watchful circle / as if I were a superstition; / or the worst dregs of her imagination… / ‘Where do you come from?’ / ‘Here,’ I said. ‘Here. These parts.’” The speaker of the poem is in her own country but is unfairly treated as a foreigner. People of color at this time were still viewed differently than whites, and still face injustice at the hands of those in power. Even though they are not harmed in the physical and overt way that they were in earlier periods, they are subject to a certain degree of oppression, mostly in the way that they are perceived by others.

Cataclysmic Conditions: Prompt 1

British literary movements are rooted in societal views, events, and conditions. As these conditions evolve, from industrialization to colonization, and war for example, different literary styles emerge. This is clearly depicted over the last two centuries of literature ranging form the Romantic era of the late 1700s to the Postmodern movement of the late 1900s and early 2000s. This is easily deductive when comparing the historical events that altered the conditions of the authors and poets that led to the varying literary genres and eras.

             The historical events that the authors lived through had an extreme impression on the meanings and motivations of the poetry and stories written. This is clearly depicted in the Romantic era poetry. Poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge kicked off the movement with the Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Viewing poetry as “spontaneous overflow[s] of powerful emotions”, the poetry written by the first generation romantics captured supernatural elements, common language, daily occurrences, as well as, coining the literary term suspense of disbelief (149). Romanticism is rooted in nature and the natural world, but also contains liberal political undercurrents such as civil liberties including freedom. However, the French Revolution stifled the political context of first generation Romantics. The “fervor for freedom” that the French Revolution idolized slowly transformed into a stark reality of war atrocities and massacres that caused the first generation poets to transform political ideologies.

            Furthermore, the Victorian Era of literature that began in approximately around 1832 still contained traces of the aftermath of the Industrial and French Revolution. Major movements such as realism, anti-realism, and gothic literature, as well as,  the extreme poverty of Britain and imperialism altered the literary structure and style of the 1800s. Realism is “a mode of amplifying experience and extending our fellow men beyond the bounds of personal lot” (530). Structurally, this means extremely detailed descriptions of geographical landscapes as well as an emphasis on the complexity of individuals’ motivations. This developed out of conditions including inadequate housing, disease, and low wages. Authors utilized literature as a method to discuss the extreme poverty, which led to the utilitarian movement. Charles Dickens “A Walk in the Workhouse” demonstrates the literary awareness of the poverty ridden Britain. Poetry such as Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade was quintessential to the Victorian movement and actually led to military reform. Continually, the era was transformed by the growing colonization that led to the British Empire.

            The British imperialism spans the end of the Victorian era and the beginning of Modernism movement. Charles Dickens “The Noble Savage” illuminates the imperialistic mindset of Britain by exposing the superiority complex and deeply rooted nationalism that led to the exploitation of the other nations by Britain. Dickens believed, as did much of Britain, that they "could not get rid of it [indigenous people] too soon” (1023). Frankly, that the indigenous people should be eradicated. This attitude is mimicked in Mayhew’s “Hindu Beggars” as well, stating that the impoverished Hindu were deservedly poor.

            By the early 20^th century, EM Forster published A Passage to India. This novel highlighted the horrific attitudes of the Anglo-Indians of the British Empire that resided in indigenous India. While his writing is seemingly traditional for the Modernist era, he was a member of the Modernist Bloomsbury Group led by Modernist novelist Virginia Woolf. The British Empire eventually fell due to World War I. 

             This catastrophic and cataclysmic event altered humanity internationally. As the Great War emerged, poets such as McCrae, Hardy, Gurney, and Owen began constructing poetry revolving around the war. John McCrae’s “In Flanders’s Field” idolized the war and thus is often seen as the most recited poem from World War I. The poetry reinforced the idea to volunteer for service to keep the spirit and fight of those who died in the trenches alive. However, the other poets wrote of the biologically chemical warfare and the atrocities witnessed. Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” depicts the realities of war and urges the end of the ultimate “lie”, that dying for your country is courageous.

            These historical events altered the literary movements, structures, and beliefs that encompass the latter of the British literature.

Poetic Form - Coleridge to Eliot

This semester, we looked at two particularly long poems - Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Eliot's The Waste Land. Just by looking at the printed text of each, it's fairly obvious how different they are, but a closer examination can reveal how British approaches to longer narrative poetry changed in the almost 100 years separating the texts.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the more traditional of the two in form; it sticks more or less to the ballad form, with regular rhyme that is only broken with purpose (as in rhyming 'thus' with 'albatross' when the Mariner shoots the albatross) and stanza lengths that begin to stray more frequently from 4 lines as the supernatural elements of the poem drift more into focus. It also has much more solid exposition, establishing the narrative frame of the Mariner telling his story to the wedding guest clearly at the beginning and referring back to him to re-establish the frame as the wedding guest's mood changes ("I fear thee, ancient Mariner!"). The narration itself is loftier than the diction of the 'common man' espoused by the same book in which this poem appeared, Lyrical Ballads, but remains stylistically grounded by its straightforward, chronological narrative that only breaks to maintain the framing device.

The Waste Land, on the other hand, is a much less straightforward poem. It contains fragments of narrative interspersed with meditations and image-based sections that come together to form more of a collage than a plot (I imagine this poem would translate well into a film - maybe even a music video). There is no regularity at all in this poem; though some images and ideas are repeatedly referenced, they appear in different capacities each time they appear (see my previous post on water for one example). There is no exposition to speak of; in section 2 of the poem, several scenes play out without introducing characters or settings, and when scenes are sketched out, as at the beginning of section 3, the point seems to be a meditation on the images presented rather than to set up any action there. The narration is hard to pinpoint, being comprised of both casual ("He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you") and more typically 'poetic' English ("And I Teiresias have foresuffered all/Enacted on this same divan or bed"), multiple languages in addition, and allusions to religion, literature, and culture woven throughout.

An interesting commonality between the texts is that both were at some point published with notes from their respective authors. Coleridge included a gloss to provide interpretations of the text, potentially in response to criticism of Rime's lofty style. Eliot's footnotes to The Waste Land translate some of the lines in languages other than English, and refer to other works in cases where Eliot lifted lines ("To Carthage then I came" being from Augustine of Hippo). Only in The Waste Land are the notes truly necessary to make sense of some parts of the text, as The Waste Land is so fragmented that no one reader could reasonably hope to read all the languages and get all the allusions on their first reading.

Going from Rime to The Waste Land, we see some adoption of more common diction, but overall The Waste Land is more difficult to make sense of. Its resistance to poetic and narrative convention is purposeful in helping communicate its themes of fragmentation and a loss of beauty and truth in the post-WWI world. Gone is the linear structure, regular rhyme and stanza length, and exposition of Rime; indeed, gone is its comprehensibility. Even the idea that a work of literature could 'teach' us something, as the Mariner teaches the wedding guest to love all of God's creations, is gone, lost to a meditation on death, pollution, and famine, brought on by the earth-shattering reality of the 'Great War.'