earticle

영어

This paper examines Stanley Elkin's award-winning novel, George Mills, and his writing philosophy and technique. His philosophy and technique are based on his own unique definition of fiction and plot. Fiction “provides a stage where language can stand,” and is energized by the will. Plot is “the willingness of a character to pay close and absolute attention to the situation in which he finds himself.” George Mills, hero of the novel, is a stableman who belongs to the low class in Northumbria society with a strict class hierarchy in the 11th century. He is obsessed with the family curse, which he heard from the lord, that his descendants will never escape from the low class by birth even if they have excellent possibilities and potentialities. His descendants abandon all hope and will to raise their status and to discover their own being, and are satisfied with poor lives dependent on vigor and endurance. They have no dream and expectation in life. However, early in the 19th century, the forty-third descendant cannot accept his status as it is, and tries to do his best to fulfill his ambitions to escape from the low class. His ambitions lead him to dangerous adventures in Turkey. When he fails in his adventures, he is forced to get aboard a ship to the U. S. A. In 1980, a thousand years from the 11th century, the sixtieth descendant is living as an impoverished worker in St. Louis. His will and goal in life are not to raise his status but to know himself and find the meaning of existence. He is an ideal hero whom Stanley Elkin has created based on his unique definition of fiction and plot.