Vernon God Little” was written in 2003 by D.B.C. Pierre.
It won The Man Booker Prize in in the same year. Since the novel about the teenager Vernon Little has its setting in the United States, in Texas, to be more precise in a small town by the name of Martirio, one might assume it was written by an American author.
Additionally, Finlay was already an internationally published cartoonist and designer before he started writing his novel. “Vernon God Little” is a contemporary satire on American society in its first decade of the new millenium. Furthermore, it can be categorized as a novel of initiation.Its protagonist Vernon Little finds himself in the blurry state of a teenager- not yet a real grown up man, neither a boy, only just starting to be confronted with life´s realities.
Because of its recent date of publication there is no secondary literature on “Vernon God Little” to be found. There are articles on the web that did provide me with at least some background information.
Why these two novels? “The Catcher in the Rye” is probably the greatest classic of novels about adolsecents in American post-war literature. The novel became mandatory reading and was included in reading lists of schools and colleges. It was very successful even in Korea and Israel, was forbidden in Australia and became a mandatory lpart of the curriculum in German schools. (vgl. Neis 1982, 8-9)
Its reception was and still is, coined by controversy. Its critics have felt offended by the liberalism and the obvious social critcism that Salinger´s work conveys.
There are still, more than fifty years after its first being publishied, new ways of interpreting Catcher.
These two novels have certain fundamental similarities. On the one hand, they both share a fairly critical outlook on the society of the time they are written in. On the other, the observer in both cases is a boy at the brink of society to the adult world. This means, subject and object in both novels share the same formal outline – I intend to compare these outlines and figure out if the classic and the newcomer have the same shape.
Since The Catcher in the Rye is widely known novel I will not discuss or reproduce its contents. Instead, I will concentrate on and offer insight into D.B.C. Pierre´s “Vernon God Little” in the first part of my work, then I will compare the two novels.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Introduction
- Presentation of "Vernon God Little"
- Summary
- Main characters
- Vernon
- Lally
- Jesus
- Taylor
- The Structure of the Novel
- Time and Setting
- Comparison with "The Catcher in the Rye"
- The Main Character - Vernon meets Holden
- Narrative Technique
- Language
- The Targets of Criticism
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte
Die Arbeit befasst sich mit der Analyse von D.B.C. Pierres Roman „Vernon God Little“ und vergleicht ihn mit J. D. Salingers „The Catcher in the Rye“. Ziel ist es, die beiden Romane als Initiationsromane zu betrachten und Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede in Bezug auf Hauptfigur, Erzähltechnik, Sprache und Gesellschaftskritik herauszuarbeiten.
- Vergleich von „Vernon God Little“ und „The Catcher in the Rye“ als Initiationsromane
- Analyse der Hauptfiguren und ihrer Rolle in der Gesellschaft
- Untersuchung der Erzählperspektive und ihrer Auswirkungen auf die Darstellung der Geschichte
- Erforschung der Sprache und Stilmittel in den beiden Romanen
- Analyse der Gesellschaftskritik und ihrer Ausrichtung auf die jeweilige Zeit
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel
- Introduction: Die Einleitung stellt den Autor D.B.C. Pierre und seinen Roman „Vernon God Little“ vor, erläutert den Hintergrund des Romans und seinen Bezug zur amerikanischen Gesellschaft. Außerdem wird „The Catcher in the Rye“ als Vergleichswerk vorgestellt.
- Presentation of „Vernon God Little“: Dieser Abschnitt bietet eine Zusammenfassung der Handlung des Romans „Vernon God Little“ und stellt die Hauptfiguren Vernon, Lally, Jesus und Taylor vor. Des Weiteren werden die Struktur des Romans sowie die Zeit und die Umgebung, in der die Handlung spielt, beschrieben.
- Comparison with „The Catcher in the Rye“: In diesem Kapitel werden die beiden Romane im Hinblick auf die Hauptfiguren, die Erzähltechnik, die Sprache und die Gesellschaftskritik verglichen.
Schlüsselwörter
Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Themen Initiationsroman, Gesellschaftskritik, Jugend und Adoleszenz, Amerika, Erzählperspektive, Sprache, Satire, „Vernon God Little“, D.B.C. Pierre, „The Catcher in the Rye“, J.D. Salinger.
- Quote paper
- Felix Bellermann (Author), 2004, "Catcher in the Rye" and "Vernon God Little" - Comparison between classic and contemporary novel of initiation, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/73151
