Boselli 1

John Boselli

Dr. Doggett

English 324

8 October 2013

Mansfields Letters to J.M. Murry

Moving forward, there is a divide in the Western canon between literature of blind
gentility and that of mans awareness of his own depravity. Postwar works must acknowledge
the historical weight they now bear in the form of new paradigms or expressive modes, or better,
a world-weary tone. Man has experienced, like a tragic hero, anagnorisis, coming to cherish life
only after he seen his power to crush it. It is not impossible to live meaningfully with when death
as the endgame for everything, but hedonism certainly isnt the answer. It seems that this
nihilism endows lifes insignificant moments with the most poignancy.