The book explores Styron's consciousness of human value which is being destroyed on the basis of color differences and sometimes on the name of Creed, Soil, Honor and 'Nationalities.
It also shows the tragic existence of a Man even at home in the lack of love and compassion. The things are illustrated with eternal love story and a slave revolt led by Nat Turner in 1831 in southern Virginia-USA. It also integrates how the army officers negate human worth on the name of honor and pride.
Violence and compassion appears to be contradictory but both are inseparable. They help him to design the humanistic concerns of modern fiction.
The negation of human worth has been a matter of concern to the literary artists and the American soil has not a clean face about the aspect. It has a horrifying image of murders, rapes and so many exploitations on the basis of race. It directly matches with the destruction of European Jews on the basis of creed. So the work deals not only with American slavery but with holocaust of Auschwitz and Vietnam. The depiction of Holocaust in Sophie's Choice evidently stirred as a deep response in Europe as the depiction of slavery did in America in Nat Turner. Styron presents both beautifully one with eternal love story and other with a revolt against injustice. It also focuses on the concept of benevolence and compassion through his domestic tragedy 'Lie Down in Darkness' and the painful condition of army soldiers in 'Long March', a novella. The power of good and evil is depicted through 'Set This House 01/ Fire' in which the protagonist sets his body on fire after the recognition of truth.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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