Tanner, Tony. Norman Mailer. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 39-49. 1986.
This is an annotation of Norman Mailer by Tony Tanner.He suggests that we look at this story in levels of American life instead of viewing it just as a series of events. The levels include his being in a high society and soon dropping to a low society. Here again we see that this critic also sees many metaphors throughout the reading. "The book tries to point inclusively to those supernatural powers which transcend this distinitively human triology" (41).
Bufithis, Phillip H. Norman Mailer. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 65-74. 1978.
This is an annotation of the book Norman Mailer by Phillip H. Bufithis. Throughout these pages Bufithis offers a look at many symbols in the reading of An American Dream. He says the “principal theme is intimacy with destruction, not separation from it” (66). He also states that most of this novel has to do with Rojack’s subconscious. I like what Bufithis says in the last sentence, “Insofar as it is fair to judge literature on moral as well as aesthetic grounds, the novel suffers from its refusal to deal with the ethical nature of man’s relation to man” (74). Since this source is 29 years old, I would be interested to see what has been written more recent. However, reading this helped me understand a few of the symbols and what they could have meant in the story. But, I think symbolic meanings can be a matter of opinion at times.
Adams, Laura. Existential Battles The Growth of Norman Mailer. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1976.
This is an annotation of the book Existential Battle The Growth of Norman Mailer by Laura Adams. She simply summarizes the main events and offers this, "It may be argued that the novel suffers from a certain thinness because of its heavy reliance on metaphor and allegory. Ironically, many early reviewers took it quite literally and found that the violence and uncommon sexual acts particulary offensive, wheras these acts express Mailer's existential ethics on the metaphorical level" (79). She also gives a few meanings to some symbols in the story.
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1 comment:
Why do you begin each with "This is an annotation..."? This is obvious and therefore unnecessary.
It's also not clear, except in the second, that you are writing about An American Dream. You must provide a further context. Also, some necessary detail is missing; e.g., statements like this are not enough: "She also gives a few meanings to some symbols in the story."
Please, please, please use your space bar after all punctuation. Why would you not do this?
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