Among the three southern writers of America, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers and Tennessee Williams, I note a theme common to their works-the pursuit of loneliness in human beings. The theme may be considered to be a noteworthy movement in American literature after World War II in that it symbolizes the uneasiness of us living in the twentieth century. When I study, however, the works of these three writers from the viewpoint of realism which forms the main current of American literature -expecially from my viewpoint of 'sex'-I think it is Carson McCullers that draws most sharply and approaches nearest to the core of the loneliness all the human beings have within. For example, the human image incarnated in a soldier named Williams as depicted in her Reflections in a Golden Eye has a much keener sincerity in the actual confrontation with our intrinsic loneliness, than either Cool, an old judge who expounds the theory of 'a chain of love' in The Grass Harp by Capote, or a nameless youth described by Tennessee Williams in his The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. The reason is that there is neither sensual frailty perceivable in 'a chain of love,' nor the mysterious feebleness peculiar to the nameless youth. And, considering such frailty or mysticism is a dangerous pitfall for literature which aims at art for art's sake, it may be said that McCullers follows the middle road of the literature of realism. In this sense, I am inclined to expect much of her who is capable of showing us an image like Williams, the soldier.
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