Postmodernism: Anti Concept

When trying to describe how the concept of traditional heroes is expressed in literary works, we should consider masculinity and courage. The traditional heroes in the novel eulogize war, battle, especially death. Because it has nothing to do with weakness or cowardice. The death after the battle made him a hero. Because he is remembered and worshipped. However, the two world wars numbed human emptiness, and the understanding of heroism began to change. In addition, the loss of belief in universal values triggered nihilism ideology. Therefore, in postmodern novels, we do not expect any brave or fearless behavior. Because the concept of traditional heroes in the novel has changed. On the contrary, we are given the image of “anti hero”, who is weak in mental and physical state. Therefore, although we are endowed with a certain pattern by traditional heroes, “anti heroes” are usually distorted, reflecting a strange pattern.

In this paper, I will first discuss the postmodern factors in these two novels. This is Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5(1969) and John Gardner’s Grandel(1971). Then I will continue to study how the concept of traditional hero became “anti hero” and the subjectivity of postmodern novels. These two novels are outstanding examples of historical metafiction, which is one of the postmodern factors in novels.

In addition, one of the popular elements of postmodern novels is the uncertainty of ontology, that is, the confusion of existence. From the perspective of whether events or the world is real, postmodernists believe that history is also a story, so it has nothing to do with some truths. Postmodern novels deconstruct and tease historical events by proposing that historical events are also stories. In addition, Hu Wencheng is regarded as one of the characteristics of postmodern novels, mocking the original works or events. In this process, we believe that the author has passed away and has no right to this work. In postmodern novels, we also have a kind of time confusion, which means that the sense of time is confusing and full of irony.

Therefore, Shiji is an example of historical meta fiction, which imitates the historical events that have occurred, and re describes history from the opposite and subjective perspective through the parallel universe in a literary work. Vonnegut created a fictional writer. He will write a novel about his war experience. It was Vonnegut himself. In addition, if there is no order of events, we can retell the story nonlinearly through flashback. In other words, the structure of “slaughterhouse 5” is fragmented. Narrator Billy Filgram told his experience in World War II, but suddenly stopped talking. Then he began to talk about his time travel and absurd visit to the fictional star Trafama.

In addition, the repetition in novel narration is also the main feature of postmodern novels. Billy repeated this point when talking about the dead. He learned from Trafalgar Madoria that this was true.(Bonegut 16). In addition, Billy Pilgrim described a split personality. He talked about three aspects of his life. He was a soldier during the Dresden massacre in 1945. He later became an optometrist and time traveler in Chicago, where he lived with a woman. In addition, we can think of novels as surreal displays. Because reality and fiction are combined in a narrative that we cannot easily distinguish.

In addition, if we take John Gardner’s Grendel as an example, this novel also has the remarkable characteristics of postmodernism. For example, Grandel rewrote the epic Beowulf, which tells the story of Scandinavians. Grendel was speaking from a monster’s point of view. This is about the war between Grendel and the soldiers of King Herotal. In Beowulf, Grandel is an evil monster. He wanted to fight and destroy everything. But because this novel is an example of rewriting an epic, history once again portrays the monster Glendale as an innocent and weak person from the opposite angle. Therefore, as Vonnegut did, Gardner also deconstructed real historical events through imitation. besides

Glendale, Chapter One emphasizes language. Because Grendel could not understand and speak human language. But then he began to understand. Postmodernism believes that language is very important to life. Because without language, life is meaningless. This is also the strength of Glendale’s communication with human beings. So art is powerful enough to educate monsters.

According to critics Forsyte and Jones, Grandel is a confused child(639 years old). Because of the temptation of doubt and belief(634 years old), he is not so much a monster as a child seeking enlightenment and knowledge(639 years old). Therefore, Grandel stands on the position of existentialism, pursues the meaning of his own existence, and doubts the meaning of existence. His wisdom makes him more human than others, so we can easily regard him as a reader.

Different from Glendale’s sceptical existentialism, Dragon’s nihilism denies the existence of God and believes that life has no purpose and meaning. As Robert Merrill said, the dragon is “the certainty of the basic truth. In the end, nothing matters “(167). In addition, the dragon believes that the whole universe is accidental and meaningless. Through the shaper of the blind poet, history is reconstructed by his words. He is correcting all heroic ideals. Therefore, “sculptor” and “dragon” can be considered as representing the ambiguous existential event of Grandel. Gardner pointed out in his book Glendale that art is a kind of salvation and provides meaning for life. He believes that morality can be realized in society through art.

When we analyze the anti heroism theme of these two novels, first of all, in Vonnegut’s autobiographical works, the hero Billy portrays an accurate representative of anti heroes in Slaughterhouse 5. According to Kunzer’s suggestion, Bonegot is rebuilding his past and creating narrative in the same way. Pop culture is committed to creating an explanatory narrative of the past(44 years old). His war experience is told through his traumatic memory. These memories are difficult to recall and tell. Because”

Talk about the Holocaust. Everyone should die. Don’t say anything or want to say anything.(Vonnegut, 13) In addition, Billy and his friends are described as infantry scouts. They don’t even know how to fight in what the colonel calls an infantry war(33) Mary is Bernard’s wife, and Bernard is one of Billy’s comrades in arms. To her, they are just children. Taking part in the war is like the “Children’s Crusade”. In fact, this is a great event in history. When a group of children were brought to Europe to conquer Palestine in the name of Christianity, they were eventually sold, became slaves or disappeared. O’Hare read in the novel:

The Crusaders were ignorant and barbaric. Their motives are stubborn. Their path is bloody and war. What are the great results of all these struggles? Europe has spent millions of people’s property and 2 million people’s blood. Some bickering drivers kept Palestinian strongholds for about 100 years.(Bonegut 11).

According to Kunzer, Vonnegut’s works quote William Blake’s Song of Innocence and Song of Experience. These two songs use the binary opposition of purity and experience. The former song is about children, while the latter focuses on the breath of maturity and masculinity(42 years old). So Billy and the other young soldiers did not know the seriousness of the war they were involved in. Billy’s character is not suitable for war. Because he is powerless to hurt enemies or help friends. He kept saying that he wanted to be alone. You don’t need me. “He was very upset that he wanted to participate in the work he witnessed during the war.” “He would not do anything to save himself”(19 years old) ▲ In addition to being mentally weak, Billy’s body is also described as weak, and even his physical condition is not suitable for fighting. And he was so ignorant and childish that he was… desolately ready to die. Billy is 6 feet 3 inches tall, with his chest and shoulders like a box of kitchen matches. He has no helmet, no coat, no

Weapons and boots… not like soldiers. He looks like a dirty red crane. So “War will not make men become men. It killed destruction, corruption, destruction and three gunmen. They were sent to perform unrealistic ideological tasks. Unfortunately, the fate was not smooth(Kunze 43,46).

The absurdity of war is proved by strange events in the novel. One of them was a soldier who stole a teapot and was finally sentenced to death. Therefore, Vonnegut once again condemned the stupidity of war. He believed that war had nothing to do with any moral value or reason. When he rewrites history, it is a huge narrative. He did not glorify the war, but implicitly criticized it. In other words, Vonnegut deconstructed the understanding of traditional truth in history. In order to deconstruct the norms of the concept of universal truth, Vonnegut created the Utopian Trafama Island. There is no sense of time, no beginning or end, no death, no war, no pain. In addition, Billy stopped telling his traumatic war experience when he was traveling on this imaginary planet. So his mind subconsciously got rid of painful memories. In fact, he was trapped in the memory of time and war. Because he can’t get rid of this memory. When Billy was fascinated by Tralfmadorians, he said to them, “Why me?” I asked. They answered what he thought was absurd. “Why are you?” Why are we? What’s up? Because now is the moment. Have you ever seen a worm trapped in a pumpkin?(37). Therefore, Trafama Doria in the novel emphasizes the meaningless and nihilism of life. They believe that there is no truth and nothing important. Therefore, Earth Billy tried to find out the meaning of what happened in these absurd events. His existential pursuit of meaning becomes a problem. Whether a planet can survive peacefully(55 years old).

In contrast to the Utopian planet, the war was so painful and cruel that people finally lost their sense. As Billy said, when a patient received morphine treatment in the war, ” although he could not feel anything, he got all the honor of being alive, which was really good”(50 years old). So we.

One of the main functions of war is to kill human feelings. Even if they are still alive.

Similar to Billy Pilgrim, in Grendel, Gardner, anti heroism is obviously expressed through the monster’s view of Grendel. Obviously, Gardner’s intention is to verify a main idea(heroic ideal, values) in each chapter, and take astrological symbols as the focus of this chapter(Forsyte and Jones 635). Therefore, although the burial of Grandel was given different constellations, the common theme was heroism and the reality of construction. So Grandel wanted to destroy the concept of traditional heroes through the existence of doubt. According to the suggestions of critics Livingston and Sutton, “his Glendale is also a very introverted figure. He tries to find his place in the world he does not know”(3). Details about parameters are as follows: “Some people in Grendel think that the hero’s ideal is a trap to capture his personal consciousness, but others are moved by their own imagination and think that the ego is related to something bigger than themselves(Forsyte and Jones 642).

Therefore, Grandel was troubled by the uncertainty of existentialism and nihilism. In addition, Gardner humanized Glendale from an animal creature to a sentient creature with human emotions(3). So we can easily recognize this terrible animal. Because it has human instinct. Because when it feels dangerous or threatened, it will naively call its mother. I’m dying! Poor Grandel! Cried Grandel, the poor old mother(Gardner, 18). Because he is regarded as an anti hero, he seems to be unprepared and needs his mother’s help all the time. Except for Grandel’s human characteristics, when he first saw human beings, he did not know their language, so he said. Say, say, read the incantation, and the pale words shut me up like a coffin(Gardner is 15 years old). But later he also began to understand human language. Even if

He can’t speak. Obviously, this is another human characteristic that Glendale inherited when they spoke.

Later in the novel, when Glander fought with a soldier of Herotal, Unferth, Glander did not kill him. Because he found it meaningless to die and consecrate in the name of heroism. For Grandel, heroism brings no benefits or values. But the soldiers of Empus and Herotal celebrated the death of heroism. “Their dead, the victims of the reconstruction of the Grandel War are the celebration of this cycle”(Forsyte and Jones 636-7). Therefore, different from the pursuit of honor and dignity by the people of Horotar to maintain the immortality of heroes, we can say that Glendel’s anti heroism has been proved again. In addition, the sculptor cursed Grandel, making him immortal. He doesn’t think he will die. In fact, he doesn’t want to live forever. It doesn’t mean anything to Glendale.

Therefore, art is one of Gardner’s priorities. Gardner was created by blind poets and magicians. In addition, the sculptor can be the representative of institutionalized reality, or the embodiment of constructed truth. He sang “Glorious deeds of the dead, praising the war”(Gardner, 54 years old), “Grandel will limit or destroy this effort, and establish objective value in a meaningless world”(Mariel, 165 years old). In other words, Grandel wanted to discover the meaning of the universe. As an anti hero, he opposes anything the creator refers to. Different from Grendel’s pursuit of survival, the dragon is described as a nihilist. He believed that everything in the universe was accidental. God does not exist(Gardner, 65). It’s meaningless. At last, he can’t find the meaning that runs through his life. When he falls down, Grandel makes a sound, and poor Grandel is in a car accident(174). According to an argument, “In his lack and pain, people most desire to experience themselves as conscious beings. “Enriched by flowing, unconscious existence”(Forsyte and Jones 641). So Grandel experienced an ambiguous existence

His pursuit of survival is that he cannot get rid of the burden of the 12 year war.

According to Robert Merrill’s suggestion, Trafarma Doria people of the Fiction Planet Resident Slaughterhouse 5 and the dragon of Glendale have similar psychological states. Because they do not rely on any truth or meaning of the universe they believe in. “There is no logic or reason for anything in life. Among all the ugliness, life is ”(178) Therefore, accepting the arbitrariness of the universe makes them feel unimportant to events. For this sentence, the dragon said. You know, it’s too difficult. Confine oneself to the concepts familiar to the creatures of the dark age(Gardner, 67); billy Pilgrims, who created and dealt with multiple worlds, traveled in slaughterhouse 5. Grandel and Gardner created nihilistic dragons. Glendale should have done that Prove” “The dragon is right, everything is arbitrary, and all values are imaginary, which is not important”(Merrill 168). The truth is subjective. Because nothing is certain, events have no constitutional value or significance. For example, in the first chapter of Grandel, we put forward the concept of “personal self and potential”(Forsyte and Jones 636) Grandel’s personality is expressed through his anger at everything around him, such as the sky or creatures. In these two post-modern novels, we are endowed with the concept of meaningless and infinite contingency in the universe.

Compared with Li, he has no value because he is Bonegut himself, but we can change that. In this regard, according to Kunze’s suggestion, Vonnegut’s works can be regarded as a “grey comedy”, a mixture of black humor of absurdism and a sense of cautious hope. There is a lamp at the end of the tunnel, or at least someone believes it exists(42 years old). After the war, one of Billy’s birds said, “Po teeweet?” I heard you call me.(Vonnegut 97) It doesn’t mean anything to Billy. As he saw in the war.

In a word, these two postmodern writers criticized the nihility and absurdity of war and heroism. Therefore, in response to this, the two writers rewrite historical events from the perspective of anti heroes. Vonnegut rewrites the oldest English epic Beowulf according to his war experience. History is also a social structure, so it is also subjective. What Vonnegut and Gardner want to show is that the purpose of heroism is invalid. Heroism makes mankind the victim of an unfortunate fate. Because heroism has no result, nor has it brought any meaning to the human desire for meaning.