The U.S. Identity Crises: American Literature in the 1950s

The U.S. Identity Crises: American Literature in the 1950s

The 1950s in the United States is known as a time of conformity and consumerism. For many American writers it is a period of intellectual purgatory. As poet W.H. Auden refers to the 1950’s - it was a seeming Age of Anxiety. While on the surface the 1950s may be considered intellectually and culturally staid, this is not the case. Under the serene facade of the 1950s lay a creative fault-line that was about to produce literary tremors that would forever shift the cultural landscape of America and directly challenge the conception of the 1950s as being bland, conformist, and bereft of literary importance.  The postwar period is responsible for ushering in a new genre of American literature that criticized the intellectually and creatively bankrupt state of American culture in the 1950s. It is the intention of this essay to trace the literary cultural shifts that transpired during the 1950s through an analysis of the writings of Patricia Highsmith, Jack Kerouac, and Ralph Ellison, in order to gain a better understanding of how their art helped to perpetuate this momentous literary shift.
While textbooks often depict the 1950s as a halcyon age, replete with high-wage jobs, ever increasing standards of living, and new technologies that promise to make life easier, one need not look far or deeply at the decade to identify significant, structural problems lying just below the surface. In response to the end of the war, the baby boom (the spike in birth rates immediately after WWII), and mounting tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union,  Americans desperately seek out some form of normalcy in an increasingly turbulent world.  The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill provides a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans such as loans for housing and education. This results in an exodus of Americans from cities to meticulously planned neighborhoods in the suburbs- or at least it results in an exodus of white Americans- leaving minority groups behind. This phenomena would be responsible for exacerbating the socioeconomic chasms between the lower and upper classes that in the coming years would contribute to the formation of the modern Civil Rights movement as the 1950s unfold. The rise of consumerism undermines the once-celebrated values of individuality in the workplace and home, which fosters a suppressive and sterile society. It is this sterility that the generation of authors who come of age during the Second World War and the immediate postwar period seek to challenge in their art.

Patricia Highsmith

One of the most notable writers of this period is Patricia Highsmith; a highly-regarded pioneer of the suspense genre who penned such classics as Strangers on a Train (1950)  and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955). Her work is unique in the way that Highsmith uses her characters and their psychology as the driving force behind her stories rather than relying on a concrete plot. These characters are the antithesis of the American Dream; they are as Terrence Rafferty puts it, “Tales of people in impossible situations making catastrophically poor choices'' (The Atlantic, 2016).  In The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tom Ripley can be read as a perversion of the American Dream; in the novel the American Dream concept is inverted- Tom leaves the United States for Italy and attempts to rise in social standing to improve the outcome of his life. Initially, his transgressions along the path of upward social mobility appear pedestrian enough, he tells a small lie about a coat he borrows and by doing so unwittingly sends himself down a path of dishonesty, fraud, and eventually murder. He flits between the multiple identities and personas he forges for himself, and in so doing creates a  purgatory of his own device and loses his own sense of identity in the process. These aspects of contemporary 1950’s American society that Highsmith addresses in her book through Tom: the loss of a sense of self, and having to leave America to improve one’s station in life, are in many ways direct refutations of the American Dream. Tom Ripley can best be considered a reflection of the anxieties and loss of a sense of self many Americans are feeling in the 1950’s and its stale conformist mainstream culture. 

Additionally and perhaps most importantly, Patricia Highsmith’s art shifts paradigms in the 1950s regarding acceptance and expectations by society of same-sex couples, particularly women. During the 1950s, lesbian pulp fiction pandered to problematic stereotypes depicting, queer women as homewreckers, devil-worshippers, self-loathing, and suicidal. In short, the moral at the end of every queer love story was there is no happy ending-- at the height of her career, Highsmith writes The Price of Salt (1952), a novel about two women falling in love and achieving a generally happy ending. While working at a department store during the holiday rush, Therese Belivet meets the wealthy and soon-to-be-divorced Carol Aird. The two women instantly connect and their mutual attraction to one another progresses into a relationship. Considering the time period-  the depiction is uncommon for the 1950s. Romantic feelings between two same-sex characters, realized in a partnership was certainly controversial. The relationship exists between the lines, as Highsmith wants her book to be accepted by the general audience. Highsmith needs to walk a fine line between speaking her literary truth and going so far that she alienates or offends her readers. This challenge is indicative of all the authors who must operate within the 1950s-finding the right balance between art, truth and marketability. 

Though their love borders on obsessive and careless, Therese and Carol are never portrayed as anything less than human throughout the story, even at their lowest moments. The certainty that the novel concludes leaves no room for argument on whether or not the two women love each other-- given both their sacrifices and misfortunes, the happy ending is one that is as satisfying as it is well-deserved.

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac is another notable writer who through his art would transform American culture. His most famous books, On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958) are unique permutations on the classic American “road trip.” For these influential works, Kerouac is considered the creative genesis behind the hippie movement of the 1960’s. His books are written in an unorthodox, stream-of-consciousness style, well-described as paying a “structural and emotive debt to the jazz music Kerouac so much loved”(Penguin Books). Keroauc’s disregard for traditional methods of storytelling is a contributing factor as to why the mainstream could not foresee how transformative his writing was going to be on young Americans. Upon its publishing, On the Road was divisive from a critical standpoint. Many were unsure how to approach the novel and Kerouac’s style alienated those more used to the subtlety of his contemporaries such as Patricia Highsmith or Truman Capote. Capote will famously dismiss Kerouac’s self-described spontaneous prose as, “That’s not writing it's typing”(, 1992) Regardless of criticisms, his work plays an instrumental role in the counterculture of the 60s; for much of the youth Kerouac is a rallying cry against the dullness of American society. Kerouac was a part of a literary group that label themselves the Beatniks; individuals who feel their creative voices are stifled or “beat down” by America’s mainstream culture.

Ralph Ellison

Another prominent writer, Ralph Ellison, explores the exclusion of people of color from the prosperity and opportunities of the post-war era. While Kerouac and his Beatniks feel oppressed and worn down by the societal expectations imposed upon them, Ellison instead centers his work on the often overlooked narrative of African-Americans through the lens of race rather than creative-intellectual discontent. It can be argued that while both issues are equally pertinent in discussions of the 1950s and 60s, the continuous relevance of racial discrimination suggests that one has deeper, more troubling roots in American society than the other.

Ellison’s The Invisible Man (1952) addresses the pressing cultural and racial dynamics at work in America of the 1950. Given Ellison’s close involvement with the civil rights movement is not surprising that he would choose to write a novel on his experiences concerning race. Ellison’s formative years were spent in Oklahoma City, a place of racially-motivated violence-  So much so in fact that black draftees begged their white neighbours not to harm their families in their absence: “During WWI, black soldiers boarding trains to leave Okla­homa City held banners that read, DO NOT LYNCH OUR RELATIVES WHILE WE ARE GONE” (Anderson, Literary Hub). 

Ellison would later pass by the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa City, Oklahoma, as his family made their own version of the Great Migration north in search of a safer lifestyle. But the threat of violence was ever present. On their trip back from Indiana, they passed by Tulsa once more, except this time Greenwood has been burnt to the ground. In their absence a black man was accused of a crime against a white woman, and the white residents took it upon themselves to lynch the prisoner, resulting in a disastrous series of bombings and shootings-- planes flown by suspected KKK members drop incendiary bombs on the Greenwood neighborhood: “There were eyewitness reports of airplanes circling and drop­ping incendiary bombs onto the roofs of buildings, burning them from the top down. In the end, 35 city blocks were reduced to smoking rubble. Ten thousand residents were left homeless. Hun­dreds of people slept in tents in the wreckage” (Anderson, Literary Hub). Oklahoma City was no better, as the popularity of the KKK skyrocketed-- local newspapers sang praises of their parades and politicians were permissive of the KKK and its crimes.

The Invisible Man is a reflection of Ellison’s experiences, both as a child and an adult. The book aims to provide a greater understanding of how society treats black Americans. The invisibility and ignorance that people of color are subjected to is met with a desperation to conform. In the book, Ellison conveys that they will never be accepted as readily as their white counterparts; the lives of people of color are limited to the distorted lenses through which white people perceive and judge them. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the literary movement of the 1950s was spearheaded by writers such as Patricia Highsmith, Jack Keroauc, and Ralph Ellison, whose writings provide invaluable insights into the socio-cultural-political wants and fears on the minds of the American people during the decade. What we glean from their books is that while post-war society appears to be a period of economic and cultural prosperity, its pressing social issues and rising tensions along fault lines of race, class, and sexuality will come to a head in the next decade. It is in 1950s literature where the beginnings of this socio-cultural realignment first makes itself known.

Works Cited

Anderson, Sam. Ralph Ellison: Coming of Age During the Rise of the KKK, Black Life in Oklahoma City, Between the Wars. Literary Hub. 21 August 2018. https://lithub.com/ralph-ellison-coming-of-age-during-the-rise-of-the-kkk/

American Culture in the 1950s. Edinburgh University Press, 2007. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b2tf. Accessed 24 Mar. 2020.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.

Fonteneau, Yvonne. “Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: A Critical Reevaluation.” World Literature Today, vol. 64, no. 3, 1990, pp. 408–412. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40146632. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.

Highsmith, Patricia. Strangers on a Train. London: Heinemann, 1950. Print.

Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2008. Print.

“Invisible Man: Themes.” Sparknotes. Sparknotes.com, “n.p.”

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/invisibleman/themes/. Accessed 24 March 2020.

Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1976. Print.

Library of Congress, Books That Shaped America: 1950 to 2000. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/books-that-shaped-america/1950-to-2000.html

Mangrum, Benjamin. The Age of Anxiety: Patricia Highsmith, Existential Psychology, and the “Decline” Of American Naturalism. Duke University Press, 2015. https://read.dukeupress.edu/american-literature/article-abstract/87/4/769/5113/The-Age-of-Anxiety-Patricia-Highsmith-Existential?redirectedFrom=fulltext

On the Road Reader’s Guide. Penguin Random House, Random House. 2020. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/540750/on-the-road-by-jack-kerouac/9780142437254/readers-guide/

“Patricia Highsmith.” Wikipedia. wikipedia.org, “n.p.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Highsmith. Accessed 24 March 2020.

Rafferty, Terrence. Gone Girl and the Rise of Crime Novels by Women. The Atlantic. July 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/women-are-writing-the-best-crime-novels/485576/