ISSN: 2581-8651 Journal of Humanities and

Vol-3, Issue-4, Jul – Aug 2021 Education Development

Humanism in Norman Mailer's War Novels

Al-Turath University College, Iraq

Received: 19 Jun 2021; Received in revised form: 14 Jul 2021; Accepted: 22 Jul 2021
©2021 The Author(s). Published by TheShillonga. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Abstract
The justification for undertaking this study lies in presenting a compact picture of war themes in the novels of Norman
Mailer. He feels that war can give men an opportunity to encounter an essential human condition in which an individual
must call upon his deepest resources to survive. He is always conscious of his death. He feels that life is war. The Second
World War presents a mirror to the human condition, which blinded anyone who looked into it. The method of searching the
theme has been analytical. This paper is based on his novel, The Naked and the Dead, a traditional and symbolic novel,
crystallizes the evil of War. It is the best war novel after the Second World War. Mailer's other War novel, An American
Dream, is a catalogue of the conflicts. The novel presents the vision of hope for individual salvation and spiritual growth. It
shows that war dehumanizes man and brings disaster of every kind.
Keywords— War, death, humanism, American dream, obscenity, American society.
I. INTRODUCTION own problem, but somehow holds on. Men endured the
The war that shocked humanity had brought forward cruelty and terror of life only by the sufferance of his
newer sources of inspiration. Men were shaken and senses and his occasional enjoyment of them. However, if
stimulated by world events and ideas. All were reflected in only he could convey them perfectly in that sufferance and
the novels and short stories. It was an emotional as well as enjoyment lay the artist's particular triumph.
an ideological experience that radically pervaded the entire In Mailer's Words, the essential mission in his war novels
literary landscape. Any novelist dealing with those is a quest for a hero, someone to be emulated in terms of
turbulent years had to impose an order upon the chaos and cultural survival. However, Mailer's vision of America
thus pattern it to illuminate the human situation. A novelist deep in plague makes his culture seem more dead than
like Norman Mailer, writing with the avowed purpose of alive. As a result, Mailer's search for a hero is difficult
bringing about social change and reform, automatically because there can be no expert on heroism when more ripe
commits an act of transgression. for villainy. Since we all have our own idea of God and the
Man, as an individual, is surrounded by society. Although Devil, it is hard for the idea not to change. Mailer believes
most men are corrupt, weak, and evil, it is possible to there is a God and a Devil at war with one another. If there
survive and remain an individual through extraordinary is a war continuing between God and the Devil for
courage, luck, and anguish. Society was no longer a humankind, this war is much more complex than a simple
comfortable abstraction but a series of afflictions. Man in confrontation for the future of humankind. "We are
society is puny and insignificant, governed by no literally bleeding God we are leeching him, depriving Him
discernible law except instinct or a mere speck of animated of his vision"(Adam, 1975, p.208)
matter struggling for survival. They are often at war with With the current state of man's world, earthly centres of
each other in their efforts to glorify themselves. He is evil have rivalled Hell. In Mailer's works, all the major
pushed to an intolerable level of frustration, which could characters admit that they are in Hell. People in power
only be relieved by a violent external engagement such as have no human understanding and sympathy for ordinary
war. The world forces man into a position where survival people. The world is wanting in love, mercy, generosity
and sanity depend on his balance and self-restraint. He and justice. Mailer believes that man's salvation lies in his
moves in a world, which is as confused and tangled as his commitment to growth and courage, which is why he

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depends on the goodness of man. The removal of all such (Naturalism) or in men as they wish to be (Romanticism),
social restraints may bring about the dawn of a better but in men, as they ought to be with reference to the
world in which man is more good than evil. Mailer charts perfection of the human type. He propounds the theory of
the anomaly, cancer, and plague that have come to existentialism to be used as a potent weapon in a war
America and proposes several solutions based on the against totalitarianism.
principle that we must not suppress our desires but rather Our lives are truly existential, that we
channel them into artful activities. He is the humanist of are not going to end up well. You see,
the bright hopes of humankind. He wishes to return man to there is always been this sort of passive
his rightful place in society and advises man not to confidence implicit in Christianity, the
surrender to authority or conformity. In his opinion, human confidence that things are going to work
rights are best won by a face-to-face confrontation. out all right. One does have to die, that
is true, but if one keeps one's nose
II. THE HUMANISM IN MAILER'S VISION reasonably clean, one is going to
AND WRITINGS heaven. And what's happened now is
we're entering an existential period in
Mailer is a visionary. He is a prophet of hope and
our history where nothing is nailed
optimism. His writings cover almost all the issues which
down. All the American faiths are being
are crucial in our twentieth-century world. He is a
exploded. We lived for too long in a
humanist because he endeavours to forge an ethic that will
paranoid dream that believed
restore the individual's place in an era of demoralization,
communism was the secret of all evil on
spiritual bankruptcy and crisis in human values.
earth because it was the social
However, many writers differed among themselves in the embodiment of the Devil. (Mailer,
details of their criticism, the Humanists shared several 1985, p.87)
views in their survey of morality and taste that the most
In Mailer's writings, the individual in the contemporary
critical part of the American part was New England
world is constantly in danger of being destroyed by the
Puritanism. The writers were interested in a kind of
social environment he inhabits. At the same time, these
culture, a kind of literature, a psychological and moral
writings give a clear call for the protection of the
effect. If these could be found in literary history, they were
individual against the repressed conditions of society.
perhaps best seen in eighteen-century England. They were
Mailer's world is towards harmony and development. With
much concerned over the presence and the exercise of
the help of his writings, Mailer attempts to do away with
moral will.
social ills that afflict Americans. He wants American
Upon these crucial points, the Humanistic judgment of society to usher in an era of peace and prosperity. Unless a
tradition depended. The question of standards was closely man keeps his courage, Mailer feels there is no love or
identified with this judgment. These standards require a mercy in our society. This type of society makes great
remarkable description of the moral nature; man is both demands on the courage of the man. If one is to be a man,
natural and human, there is a lower and higher nature, a one must possess the force to change the world. In Mailer's
bestial and a divine. The true artist is aware indeed of the view, the novelist has the responsibility not merely to
bestial in man but sees something else and looks for the make imaginative construction from reality but also to
meaning of life. Norman Forester (American criticism offer a sufficiently compelling vision of the present and
1928) offered a description of the humanist personality. He future possibilities in the world.
will be a complete man, he will acknowledge and value
All through Mailer's literary development, his experiments
proportion and lie will have standards, he will understand
with the novel form, the short story, essay, journalism,
the moral constant that has appeared in cultures of the past,
interview, biography and drama, he searches for a style
he will be a man of reason but also a man of imagination,
consistent with the consciousness of his time, the quest for
he will above all recognize that the "ultimate ethical
a hero whose voice is big enough to carry the vision which
principle is that of restrain or control" (Hoffman, p.166)
would classify the image of a nation.
This Humanist personality should also be able to detect the
failures of literature and thought for what they are, his In Mailer's view, The Naked and the Dead is a symbolic
moral faculty is all but identical with his critical and the book, and its basic theme is a conflict between the beast
two functions, basically in harmony. and seer in man. In the character of Hearn, Cummings,
Croft and Valsen and each soldier's character in the
The philosophy of Humanism finds its master truth not in
platoon, Mailer uses the war situation to explore the
men as they are (Realism) or in men as worse than they are

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questions of man's basic desires and psychic needs. Every vision, and as a General, he is free to make choices among
man is forced to confront the fact of death, and by his the existing avenues to power.
experiences, he is stripped naked. "Cummings belief is that The truth of it is that from man's very
man's basic drive is to achieve power over other men and inception there has been one great
the natural world". (Radford, 2013, p.8) . He recognizes vision blurred first by the exigencies
the undefined and mighty hunger in himself as the most and cruelties of nature, and then as
expansive vision that has ever entered his soul and accepts nature began to be conquered by the
it as his own and of all men as well. He dedicates himself second great cloak economic fear and
to the power of morality, and this dedication makes him economic striving ...... there's that
heroic. As Philip Bufithis remarks that General Cummings popular misconception of man as
represents, then, Mailer's self-projection of himself as the something between a brute and an
romantic artist convinced that he is possessed of the ability angle. Actually, man is in transit
to recreate the world. (Rollyson,2000, p.45) Cummings is between brute and God. (Mailer, 1948,
also markedly devoid of sympathy for others - as though p.323)
his self-contained emotions are requisite to his exercise of
Cummings is hypnotized by power and believes in the fear
power.
ladder, which gives him control over his men, but Hearn
Croft's heroic potential is more potent than that of disagrees. Robert Hearn states that Cummings is an
Cummings. He surpasses all ineffective leadership and existentialist because, for him, every moment is a moment
active courage. He represents another aspect of the seer in of crisis in which his private destiny as a leader is bound
man with no political theory of his power of command inextricably with the death-like destiny of his culture.
over the man in the platoon and accepts their fear and What grieves here is that Hearn does not oppose fascist-
hatred as the unavoidable fate of that leadership. Like like Cummings by offering a consistent humanist view of
Cummings, he feels no desire or regrets other kinds of human nature. Instead, Hearn forcefully accepts
relationships and Croft dislikes being touched. The result, Cummings view of man and is thrown back into self-
as Andrew Gordon has noticed, is a novel with a very denigration. His political liberalism fails to oppose General
narrow emotional range. Croft, like Cummings, feels a Cummings American fascism, but it also fails at the
special closeness with Mount Anaka. His attempt to reach practical level in his relationship with other men. As a
the mountain's peak shows his courage, which is heroic platoon leader, he likes the tension of the battle and
because he attempts to conquer the elements with his commands, which produces a suppressed joy and
willpower. When he climbs the mountain, Croft has the excitement in him. He echoes the sentiments of Roth and
ability to know how to move from ridge to ridge: "He had hates the field officers because they had wrapped the finest
the mountain in his teeth as completely and excitedly as a minds of his generation.
hound which has picked up the scent."(Mailer,1948, 635)
Despite their different positive qualities, both Hearn and
His courage and willpower are some of Mailer's heroic
Valsen fail to maintain even their ideas of themselves. Red
figures.
Valsen left his woman and child for no fault in their past,
Judging other men in these terms, both Croft and with whom he has lived happily for many years. Both
Cummings feel only contempt for those who lack the Hearn and Valsen do not have an alternative to the
willpower to the power struggle. Croft's reaction to Red's exponents of the power of morality, and neither offers a
rebelliousness is contemptuous dismissal, "It was always vision of their heroic possibilities. Cummings senses that
the men who never got anywhere who did the bitching'. Hearn can be converted to his views, and he plays a subtle
Red is convinced that "Nobody gets what he game with the lieutenant until Hearn rebels and
wants"(Mailer,1948, p.140). What Croft dislikes more disdainfully throws a cigarette on Cummings floor. It is
about Hearn is his desire to be friendly with the platoon. Goldstein and. Ridges, the two who accept the burden of
Cummings is disappointed with Hearn for similar reasons their interdependence and offer a glimpse of a quite
though they ate expressed differently. He forces Hearn to different type of heroic endeavour. The invasion of
pick up the cigarette butt on pain of court-martial. Anopopei to subdue the Japanese platoon, the jungle and
Cummings asks Hearn what he takes man's deepest urge to the weather are the determining forces of the platoon's
be. When Hearn suggests it is the sexual urge, he dismisses existence. Those who struggle heroically against these
it, and in further conversation with Hearn, he justifies conditions are the novel's seers. The men who are
power morality for romantic fascism. The General has a constantly hindered in the battle by the force of nature or
to another's will or obstacles are unheroic.

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While describing the two expeditions, the Mount Anaka never said the abyss. (Mailer,1965,
climbers and those who carry Wilson on a litter to the p.24)
beach, Norman Mailer sees the litter-bearer's journey in The relevance of Rojack's dream to American's need for a
terms of religious traits. However, it is possible to know hero is established. His adventures in the thirty-two hours
something about Ridges by the comment made by of the novel are not an assortment of dull cruelties, and
Goldstein. "Ridges was a good man; there was something callous copulations or the charge that An American Dream
enduring about him"(Mailer,1948, p.527) is a very dirty book is not justified.
Both Goldstein and Ridges continue long after there is any Of course An American Dream is not
hope of sowing Wilson's life to the point where their good or bad simply because it deals
efforts are to get the body to the shore. Similarly, Croft with aspects of life seldom treated with
and his group have been unable to climb the mountain candour in serious literature and ever
resulting in the virtual defeat of the Japanese. Both less frequently with Mailer's relish of
journeys become futile. They symbolize seer in man, but detail. It is an introspective novel.
Goldstein and Ridges' heroism cannot set right the Mailer has created the style of a
American society because the goodness, which they contemporary introspective novel.
possess, can endure such a world but does not change it. Mailer has created the style of
Underlying the intensity of Croft's love for violence and contemporary introspection, at once
his assault upon the external world, Mailer identifies him violent, educated and cool.
as a strong enough hero to change the world. Croft's (Poirier,1956, p.163)
personality has hardened so that he is characterized
In Rojack's life, he aims at the attainment of salvation and
repeatedly by the statement. "I hate everything which is
the realization of God. Rojack, a middle-aged professor of
noting myself."(Mailer,1948, p.164)
existential psychology, believes that magic dread and the
Mailer's other novel, An American Dream, creates a hero, perception of death were the roots of motivation. Rojack is
Rojack, endowed with superhuman imagination. Rojack in not immune to the fascinations of power and murders his
An American Dream is a more mature version of Mailer's wife Deborah, a rich heiress, in a violent struggle at her
earlier novel, The White Negro. It is an example of apartment because she represents the forces of darkness
Mailer's hope that an individual can survive in a corrupt from which he must save his soul. She is a symbol of the
and hostile society. In this novel, it is seen that love for beast that the sear must overcome. Rojack inherits her
one's mate can represent the greatest single optimistic hope power and light with her death, which she cannot take to
for the individual brave enough to earn it. the underworld.
From the beginning of the novel, Rojack is established as She was bad in death a beast stared
an existentialist who differs from Kennedy in abyss and back at me. Her teeth showed the point
magic. The American Dream has turned into a nightmare of light in her eye was violent, and her
of material success. However, Rojack's dream of ecstasy mouth was open. It looked like a cane. I
and violence underlines the sedation of American life and could hear some mind, which reached
therefore is authentic for the American nation. Before the down to the cellars of sunless earth. A
beginning of the dream, he has lost hope in the little line of spit comes from the corner
possibilities of growth provided by the culture. Rojack of her mouth. (Mailer,1965, p.43)
realizes that he is a total failure. He rejects politics and
In An American Dream, Rojack digs a hole for himself, a
other forms of the American Dream of power. He fails to
grave, a death scene from which he does not begin to
understand the existential abyss of dread rationally, but his
emerge until he kills Deborah. By strangling her to death,
realization of dread is religious for him, and it separates
Rojack gains new life and grace. Moreover, this madness
him from the conventional heroes of his culture.
of murderous impulse should not be denied, and it should
The real difference between the be realized "Cancer is the growth of madness denied"
President and myself maybe that I (Weatherby,1977, p.113). American society may go for a
ended with too large an appreciation of checkup since madness co-exists with sanity. By killing
the moon, for I looked down the abyss his wife, he purges his own requirement of being an
on the first night. I killed four men, four American existentialist.
very separate Germans, dead under a
The hero as a murderer seems reasonably healthy and
full moon whereas Jack for all I know,
straightforward in his approach to power and its
manipulations in the novel. He has a vision of a heavenly

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city, and a little later, feels as though he was reborn. "I had order to perpetuate the form of its being. The success of
a view of what was on the other side of the door and I Rojack is of considerable inspiration to the American
heaven was there." (Mailer,1965, p.35) character. In Mailer's early and middle work, the beast in
After the murder, he encounters limitations and man appears to be strong enough to subdue seer in him,
possibilities represented by her maids Ruta and Cherry. but then such a disaster is arrested as the seer in man
Immediately afterwards, Rojack confronts Shago Martin - overshadows the beast. The plague in America ultimately
a singer, an elegant Negro with skin as dark as midnight becomes for Mailer, a more powerful force standing
and Barney Kelly are suffused with a similar combination beyond spirit but sharing its tendency to deaden the soul.
of violence and sexuality. Rojack defeats Shago and In accord with his increasing emphasis upon the self,
throws him down the stair, which purges some of Rojack's Mailer does not refer to racial or religious categories but to
own fear and hatred. He enters the Waldorf to encounter men who possess a particular sense of their own lives.
Kelly with the umbrella handed to him by Cherry. Rojack Unlike D.J., however, Mailer locates himself beyond the
is gripped with fear and feels as if he were in hell, "For a conflicts, which are described. His favourite theory is that
moment I had died and was in the ante-chamber of Hell. I America is run by a mysterious hidden mastermind, a
had a long vision of hell not of its details, of its first secret creature with a brain where he can throw out all his
moment."(Mailer,1965, p.194) corporate management of thoughts. This purification is
Rojack's other confrontation scene is with Kelly. As closely connected to the use of obscenity in the book.
Andrew Gordon noticed, Kelly resembles General While in The Naked and the Dead, obscenity functioned to
Cummings. Both men have cold grey eyes and frigid, undercut the military hierarchy, which Mailer details in
bitchy wives. Then, Rojack is again enraged as Kelly sets The Armies of the Night. Mailer favours the purifying
for Rojack the challenge of walking the parapet outside his effect of giving free rein to obscenity in one's speech or
apartment. Despite this cold-blooded push, Rojack writing as it cures a man of his obscene thoughts. Mailer
throttles his rage. After one quick blow, he flings the states categorically that the war in Vietnam was obscene,
umbrella over the edge. His throwing of the umbrella and he explains why America's leaders are opposed to
shows his sacrifice of the drive-in Rojack for suicide and verbal obscenity: "Yes, the use of obscenity was indeed to
murder. Finally, he fights with Kelly to overcome him. be condemned for the free use of it would wash away the
nation-was America the first great power to be built on
Kellly is a devil, and he has given his content to the power
bullshit." (Mailer,1977, p.201)
of darkness in America. Rojack survives the violent scene
on Kelly's balcony. He is purified and is free to pursue his Mailer warns that banning obscenity may prove fatal.
new life. However, his battle with the devil is not yet over, Those who ban obscenity are like the Rustys of America,
and he tries to maintain the balance on the brink. If he bottling up their rages and fears, which are then channelled
failed to balance, he is liable to fall, for there was nothing into an obscene war. The purging of obscenity does affect
as delicate in the entire world as one has lost touch of purification, but then why would D.J. and Tex go to
control. Vietnam? W. Aldridge gives the following interpretations:
Now they have conquered the impulse in themselves, they
At the end of the novel, Rojack's position does not seem
do not need Vietnam as an outlet for their hostilities, and
very hopeful and encouraging, but due to Mailer's attempt
so it is certain that they will be as derisively antagonistic to
to focus upon mystical notions such as soul and spirit.
the war as they have been to the sick pretensions of Rusty's
Rojack, towards the end, feels free, brave and strongman
world" (Lucidoston,1971, p.97) This interpretation is half
through his resourcefulness. In this novel, Mailer's view of
true because D.J. and Tex are very eager to proceed to
American society is as bleak as it is set forth in The Naked
Vietnam and their communication with nature intensifies
and the Dead. Elaborating upon the metaphysical
their violence, which gets its outlet in fighting in Vietnam.
dimensions of human struggle, he acknowledges that
If Mailer's thinking about the Vietnam War has changed, it
everything, which is alive or intent, or obsessed, must
has only been in the direction of a greater exploration of
wage an active war. It creates the possibilities for form in
the psychological needs which the war serves.
its environment by every attempt to shape the
environment. In Vietnam War, Mailer is more patient in his hope for a
transformation of American society. Throughout the novel,
Although quite many men are demoralized, it is possible
he speaks of a revolution that will take place with the aid
through great courage for a man to achieve grace and
of electoral politics. He presents his earlier idea that the
solution. With the hipster's urge to impinge on people and
war between the privileged and the oppressed has been
events, the soul, although passive and acted upon by its
superseded by the conflict between those who would
environment, tries to locate itself in an object or person in

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maximize the productive resources of civilization and courage is to be potentially heroic, possibly even
others concerned with developing a more instinctive mode representative of the ethos. Mailer's ideal heroism will not
of life. be expressed until he ends his intense search for a
Mailer is a novelist of humanitarianism. He is grieved to prototypic figure that represents cultural survival and
see society governed and dominated by the sinister. In culture worthy enough to be saved. Mailer believes that the
Vietnam War, Mailer, in accord with his increasing modern man should return to a more simplified and more
emphasis upon the self, offers a more psychological natural existence.
explanation. He does not refer to racial or religious Mailer concluded by saying the real war was not between
categories but to men who possess a particular sense of west and east but between the conservative and the rebel,
their own lives. In Vietnam, then Lyndon Johnson merely authority and instinct between two views of God. The
acts for all of America since everyone is a member of a conservative view is that the rich and the poor are born in
minority group. Lyndon Johnson and other Americans their respective places. The rebel's view-Mailer's view-is
were pushed to an intolerable level of frustration, which that society is caught up in a war between God and the
could only be relieved by a violent external engagement Devil.
such as the Vietnam War. Mailer really believes that the man must serve as God's agent, seeking
American government and the majority of people seek to to shift the wealth of our -universe in
eliminate dissent and diversity and provide a home for such a way that the talent, creativity,
mass men. The forces of totalitarianism, corruption, greed, and strength of the future ...... will show
exploitation, commercialism, violence and crime. Mailer us what a mighty renaissance is locked
hopes that the New World of happy hopes and glorious in the unconscious of the dumb.
fulfilment of man's aspirations would come to an end (Mills,1982, p.258)
provided the degenerated American society heeds to his
So Mailer, through his war novels, attempts to make the
counsels. Mailer, in his writings, looks for a dynamic hero
people realize their bad ways of life and save themselves
with a strong voice to carry the vision of the regeneration
from dehumanization.
and reconstruction of human society.
Mailer puts all the protagonists of his works to the test.
General Cummings and Croft in The Naked and the Dead
suffer from serious flaws of one sort or another and render
themselves incompetent to get rid of society from social
III. CONCLUSION
evils. Mailer succeeds in his quest for the hero in An
American Dream; Rojack takes to violence and sex and Mailer's army experiences have deepened his pre-existing
purges himself of the cancerous tendencies. Evil urges, conception of American life as a desperate gamble in
which, if repressed, leads to morbidity and cancer. With which men are futile pawns on the giant chessboard of
his heavy emphasis upon intuition, he presents through circumstances. He regards totalitarianism as the most
Rojack a worldview that lacks intellectual solidity. Thus dreaded antagonist of American society. It is a moral
Rojack brings about his salvation. This salvation is the disease, and it induces psychic pacification. In all his
salvation of society. Mailer's message is that this present works, Mailer has attacked this evil eclipsing American
corrupt society may be replaced by a society of human society. In his war novels, Mailer calls upon people to
happiness if its inhabitants are the men of commitment to protect themselves against the totalitarian society in which
growth, possess courage, will and large vision. they live. It dulls one's sense of death.
A sick America immediately subverts Mailer's ideals that a For Mailer, the war had unreal quality. He speaks the truth
hero should represent the major themes of his ethos, which and gives a realistic account of American life, which
would mean a hero at home. Existential man is the total of shows the weakness, corruption and moral degradation of
the acts, which comprise his existence. At any specific contemporary American society. Most of the fighting men
moment, a hero is a hero, no less and no more. Will power are portrayed as depraved, twisted, or stumped by the
can transform regulator into a rebel, a coward into a brave disintegrating forces and counter forces at work in their
man, victim into victimizer. Heroism and villainy are world. Through a close reading of his novels, it is possible
moral correlatives rather than moral alternatives. The to find that Mailer remains cynical and pessimistic in his
concept gives Mailer's protagonists their own moral tones. works. He realistically portrays the crises of human values
Mailer further ignores traditional heroism except for his and spiritual impoverishment. Mailer presents in the theme
consistent belief that courage is a key attribute to possess the struggle of life and form against death and chaos.
Being a social critic, Mailer depicts America's

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preoccupation with crime, violence, sex arid technology, feels that men must have social as well as individual
and all other contemporary social issues and problems. patterns of action if they want to prevail and ultimately
Mailer was writing to justify himself to the world. overcome the inhuman tendencies within modern society.
However, his essential purpose has always been to delve While confronting the complex and chaotic aspects of
deep into the centre of the American psyche and report his contemporary civilization, he satisfies the needs of postwar
finding with utmost sincerity. Mailer is very violent in his Americans than others. It is possible to witness in his
attack upon social decadence. Mailer, like a painter, paints works the deepest consciousness of the postwar period.
American life across a number of canvases, shaking people The world is always a grey horror, everything comes
up, stamping on them, and showing how life is stalemated undone, and the heroes are always broken. The war exists
and defeated by the forces of death. as something oppressive. War seems only the last brazen
cruelty of the enemy, the outrage inflicted upon those who
He shows that the individual is locked up in the machine
would live bravely, be a part of it, and be passionately free.
world of modern society. The writings of Mailer are
pervaded by the personal expression of the life of Mailer.
Coming across his war novels, it is possible to discover REFERENCES
that the heroes of his works are spokesman of Mailer [1] Hoffman, F.J. (1968). The Twenties: American Writing in
whose passion, urges and agonies have remarkable the Postwar Decade. New York: Viking Press.
affinities with those of Mailer's life. Rojack, the chief [2] Laura, A. (1975). Existential Aesthetic: An Interview with
character in An American Dream, resembles Mailer in Norman Mailer. In Lennon J. Michael (ed.) Conversation
several ways with some of his farther ambitions, a slightly with Norman Mailer. Jackson and London: University
idealized Mailer and his philosophy of life. Mailer has put Press of Mississippi. (p.208)
[3] Lucidoston, R. F. (Ed.) (1971). Norman Mailer: The Man
his ingenuity into the mouth of his heroes. Rojack shows
and His Work. Boston: Little Brown.
the rot, stink and stench of contemporary American
[4] Mailer, N. (2018).The Naked and the Dead. London:
society. The autobiographical expression of life is present Penguin books.
in many of the writings of Norman Mailer. He reflects on [5] Mailer, N. (2018). An American dream. London: Penguin
the disappointing aspirations, the failure and the sorrow of Books.
his time. In his works, he informs about domestic [6] Mailer, N. (2018). The Armies of the Night. London:
problems and social evils. Penguin Books.
[7] Mailer, N. (1985). Pieces and pontifications. London: New
Mailer portrays the tragic experience of the American
English Library.
machine-age. He, as a war novelist, feels that they are [8] Mills, H. (1982). Mailer: A Biography. New York: Empire
disillusioned and sad. Decent human gestures are not Books.
possible in the presence of the military machine as it [9] Poirier, R. (1965). Morbid-Mindedness in Norman Mailer.
brings out the worst in everybody. They are devoid of Commentary.
human values. They are uprooted and betrayed, and in https://www.commentary.org/articles/richard-poirier/an-
these horrible conditions, he attempts to make people american-dream-by-norman-mailer.
realize their bad ways of life. therefore, he shows people [10] Radford, J. (2013). Norman Mailer: A Critical Study. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.
how to save themselves from dehumanization. He shows
[11] Rollyson, C. E. (2000). The lives of Norman Mailer: a
his ability to struggle against despair in his novels. He
biography. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.
pinpoints the limitations and weaknesses of his age. He [12] Weatherby, W. J. (1977). Squaring off: Mailer versus
attempts to depict America's spiritual poverty in the midst Baldwin. New York: Mason/ Charte.
of material progress. As compared to his contemporary
writers, he attempts to forge an ethic that will restore the
place of the individual in an era of depersonalization,
alienation and rapid change.
Through Mailer's novels, it is possible to study the
degradation of American life with all its misery and
sickness. His morals are compounded by courage,
engagement with death and commitment to growth. He
alone stands among his contemporaries in possessing a
coherent metaphysics of the human condition as it now
exists. He becomes the social microcosm and mirrors the
weakness, corruption and inadequacies of this world. He

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