Ambiguity

Kayleigh Gonzales

Professor Lise Esch

English 203

02 August 2010

Postmodernism: The Age of the Ambiguity

The Postmodern Period style of writing is considered as a reaction to modernism and followed the loss of morale, after the Second World War. The predeceasing Modernist Period  spanned from the 1890’s till after the 1960’s set the precedent for Jeffrey Eugenide’s novel the Virgin Suicides, written during the Postmodern Period. Postmodernism and its predecessor Modernism, in substance, deals with one’s own self-consciousness and the feats that can be overcome with practical thinking. Postmodernism came about in the 1960’s and took a more pessimistic turn in which the complexity and ambiguousness of life took center stage leaving its masses with the sense of walking lost within an impersonal world. Both Poets and Writers of postmodernism reflect on the diminished assurance of Western Civilization and the fact that even scientific and sound thinking could lead to no universal truth to make life make sense.

The Postmodernist Period was highly focused on the downfall of society and the takeover of evil which emerged in Western Civilization.  In the novel, the Virgin Suicides, the evils of the modern world are put forth in a variety of ways.  The events which transpire in the novel are a classic sign of corruption within Middle America’s kids and the false safeness that “those” kind of people blind themselves with. Eugenides’ story deals with a chain effect between the Lisbon sisters that occurs ultimately ending all five ventures in suicide.  With a sense of obscurity, like seen by Modernist T.S. Eliot’s “the Waste Land”, the Virgin Suicides shares the abstract narrator and also puts before the reader examples of the chaos in their worlds.  Robert Frosts’ writing “Mending Wall” is told by a man frustrated with his neighbors ideal that “good fences make good neighbors”. This sentiment is displayed in Eugenides’ novel similarly by pointing out the inability of anyone to get close to the exhibitionist suicide fated teenagers and showed the same ideal in the impersonal neighbor being part of modern day’s problem.  The tragedy which occurred for the Libson girls could have possibly been avoided if the concerns of the narrator in the “Mending Wall” were taken into account. (Baym, Nina 988) The outwardly average Lisbon family and home was rocked by their mother’s choice to not take such warnings as to not build a fense, or more simply not to imprison human beings who need interaction to become well adjusted and part of the solution to a better world. (Eugenides 5) Postmodernism is highly centered on the fact that nothing makes sense.

In postmodern writing death is simply an end and how one arrives there is nothing but what that person stumbles into. Frost’s poem, “Fire and Ice”, questions if the world will end with the fire, representing desire, or with ice, representing hate or war. Frost gives each individual in their demise has a choice of the way they go and he hopes his life is to end in a fire of furious desire. (Baym, Nina 889) The Libson girl’s isolation endured after their younger sisters successful suicide set the precedent for the girl’s ultimate end.  They were kept from being able to live and thus the only way out of their lonely existence, they took. Eudora Welty used her geographical location in order to inspire her stories course much like Eugenides, who utilized his personal experience of his own regional experience in order to reveal the misconception of the idealized suburban America, in the Virgin Suicides, and southern hospitality, in “Petrified Man”.  These authors both expose the dismantling of the once regarded “safe” and “wholesome” areas that city people flocked to in order to flee the corrupt urban areas. Welty, though a part of the modernist period, reflected post-modern content in her short story “Petrified Man”, published in 1941, long before the strong emergence of the postmodern period, until the 1980’s. (Eugenides 36) Both of these stories also reflect on society with the onlookers who are fascinated with mystery.  The narrators in the Virgin Suicides thrive on and seem to get general entertainment from the suffering of others.  The Lisbon girls and the “Petrified Man” share in common their passive-aggressive nature in their extreme act. Welty’s short story shows the modernist characteristic of realism within the personalities of the character’s who are faulted, some annoying, selfish people, like the parents and onlookers in the Virgin Suicides, who act in the way that is most convenient for them.  Harmful interest in one is found in Leota’s fascination of the mysterious Mrs. Pike who others are jealous of and gossip about because they believe she has a successful husband and a good life. Appearances, like that of the suburban home of the Lisbon girls which appeared “normal”, is deceiving like the title “Petrified Man” which is a circus freak hiding out from his warrant from four rapes he committed in retaliation to woman and people who made him feel powerless. (Baym, Nina 1149) The realism of the depth of the problems is in accordance with the postmodern complexity that plagues the characters lives.

The most recent period, Postmodernism, ambiguity and often depicted pointless world is an undeniable in the authors of its era.  Allen Ginsberg's epic poem "Howl," is a poem that matches, if not exceeds, Eugenides The Virgin Suicides at being edgy. In following the different lifestyles acceptable with the period, this beatnik actively went to rallies, was publically against “the man” keeping him down, homosexual Buddhist who ate up the bohemian way of life in college and maintained the lifestyle during his career as a poet. Both Ginsberg and Eugenides share their style to shock the public. (Baym, Nina 1416) Postmodernism is the edgy period American society has pushed the nation as a whole too and showed by American artists, poets, and musicians alike giving an attitude to people of its day.

Work Cited

Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides. New York: Warner, 2000. Print.

Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2008. Print.