‘the Narrator’s Quest for Trout Fishing in America Is a Series of Disappointments’ (Tony Tanner). How Important Do You Feel Disappointment, Loss and Death Are in Trout Fishing in America?
‘The narrator’s quest for Trout Fishing in America is a series of disappointments’ (Tony Tanner). How important do you feel disappointment, loss and death are in Trout Fishing in America?
The importance of disappointment, loss and death in Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America can’t be ignored or overlooked as it is a constant and recurring theme throughout the novel. However, the way in which Brautigan conveys this reoccurring theme is mainly through his use of humour, witticism and absurdism, and this allows Brautigan to counteract the feeling of disappointment, loss and death. “Although his work is indeed extremely funny, there is a pervasive sense of loss, desolation and death in it which amounts to an implicit formulation of an attitude towards contemporary America” (Tanner 1971: p.406). Brautigan is able to expresses the feelings of disappointment, loss and death through the fragmented nature of the novel, it has been suggested that Trout Fishing in America can be read as a “collection of tiny fictions or perhaps even prose poems, each highly wrought, like exquisitely handcrafted trout flies or lures, most of them with enough interest and hooking power to “work” by themselves” (Cooley 1981: p.405). By telling the narrative in this fragmented style Brautigan has enabled himself to apply various meanings to the title Trout Fishing in America without having to adhere to a strong linear storyline, and can therefore apply the title to various subjects or situations. For example Trout Fishing in America becomes a pen nib, a place, a person, a sport, or even the environmental degradation and commercialism that Brautigan could see consuming America. This allows Brautigan a freedom in his writing to express various experiences of disappointment, loss and death.
As the novel is in fact more like a collection of prose poems or individual works of fiction than perhaps a more conventional linear novel, Brautigan encourages the use of the reader’s imagination
The importance of disappointment, loss and death in Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America can’t be ignored or overlooked as it is a constant and recurring theme throughout the novel. However, the way in which Brautigan conveys this reoccurring theme is mainly through his use of humour, witticism and absurdism, and this allows Brautigan to counteract the feeling of disappointment, loss and death. “Although his work is indeed extremely funny, there is a pervasive sense of loss, desolation and death in it which amounts to an implicit formulation of an attitude towards contemporary America” (Tanner 1971: p.406). Brautigan is able to expresses the feelings of disappointment, loss and death through the fragmented nature of the novel, it has been suggested that Trout Fishing in America can be read as a “collection of tiny fictions or perhaps even prose poems, each highly wrought, like exquisitely handcrafted trout flies or lures, most of them with enough interest and hooking power to “work” by themselves” (Cooley 1981: p.405). By telling the narrative in this fragmented style Brautigan has enabled himself to apply various meanings to the title Trout Fishing in America without having to adhere to a strong linear storyline, and can therefore apply the title to various subjects or situations. For example Trout Fishing in America becomes a pen nib, a place, a person, a sport, or even the environmental degradation and commercialism that Brautigan could see consuming America. This allows Brautigan a freedom in his writing to express various experiences of disappointment, loss and death.
As the novel is in fact more like a collection of prose poems or individual works of fiction than perhaps a more conventional linear novel, Brautigan encourages the use of the reader’s imagination
Bibliography: Word count : 2248 Brautigan, Richard (1967). Trout Fishing in America. Vintage Books, London. Cooley, John (1981). The Garden in the Machine. Michigan Academician. Tanner, Tony (1971). City of Words; American Fiction 1950-1970 HarperCollins