Date of Award

6-1954

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Abstract

In this thesis the writer has attempted to analyze the most representative novels of World War II with regard to content matter, styles, attitudes, values, language, and direction. In this survey forty-four novels concerning themes of the Second World War were studied. These novels represent the work of twenty-nine different writers.

The thesis is divided into six chapters, namely, Chapter I, Techniques and Styles; Chapter II, Subject Matter; Chapter III, Attitudes and Values; Chapter IV, Language; Chapter V, Humor; Chapter VI, Total Appraisal.

The authors of the various novels included in the thesis are as follows: Ludwig Bemelmans, Vance Bourjaily, Kay Boyle, Harry P. Brown, Pearl S. Buck, John Home Bums, Ned Calmer, James G. Cozzens, William W. Haines, Marion Hargrove, Alfred Hayes, Basil Heatter, Thomas Heggen, Ernest Hemingway, John Hersey, Stefan Heym, James Jones, Norman Mailer, John P. Marquand, James A. Michener, Merle Miller, Irwin Shaw, Upton Sinclair, William G. Smith, John Steinbeck, Gore Vidal, Frederic Wakeman, Ira Wolfert, and Herman Wouk. In this selection of authors the writer of the thesis has been guided by two main considerations. First, he has attempted to select books that, taken as a whole, cover all phases of the war from the view points of both the combatants and the civilians. Second, he has striven to include in the thesis authors representative of the newer group of writers to emerge from the war as well as the group of older, established writers.

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