Novel Look Homeward Angel example essay topic

Thomas Wolfe. In the novel Look Homeward Angel, the culture of the time is evident, through the speech, dress, and actions of the characters it became very clear that it was set in the early 1900's. The setting was the same as that of the authors real life, giving the reader a window into the world of Thomas Wolfe. Throughout his novel Look Homeward Angel the use of culture and setting add a touch of color into an otherwise grey novel.

The names of people and places, though slightly manipulated, were basically the same. The people of Asheville, or shall I say Altamont, banned the book and some went as far as to send letters that threatened Wolfe's life, upon the publishing of the book in October of 1929, for that very reason. A person familiar with Asheville in that time would have no trouble filling in the names of the characters in the novel... Thomas Wolfe was raised in Asheville, NC, his mother ran a boarding house, his father was an alcoholic and the owner of a tombstone shop. Wolfe had seven brothers and sisters, he was the youngest, born in 1900. He attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill when he was but 15 years of age.

Upon graduating, he enrolled in the Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences at Harvard where he spent the next three years of his life. At age 26 Wolfe published his first novel Look Homeward Angel, a practical autobiography. The similarities between Wolfe's actual life and that of Eugene Gant, his pseudo-self in the novel, are striking. Money in those days, for the Gant family, was pretty scarce, but Eliza always made ends meet by pinching every penny she could get her hands on, even at the cost of her sons life. Eugene never had many luxuries, he was once forced to wear shoes much to small for his feet, simply because his mother did not want them to go to waste, as a result his feet were gnarled and bent for the rest of his life. But one luxury the Gant's indulged in was a car, a 1913 five-passenger Ford.

It was purchased on a whim, and the gasoline, repair and equipment bills were high, but it served as a status symbol. It was before everyone owned a car, only the rich owned cars for pleasure. For the Gant's to have a car said something, it said they had money. "It " ll ruin you quicker than anything in the world", Gant once told his son Eugene. Gant was an alcoholic, but even he knew how terrible it could be, the addiction, the drunken rampages, the terrified people who encounter the drunken fury. Drinking was a major problem in both Eugene's life, and in Thomas Wolfe's.

Wolfe's father, W.O. Wolfe, was an alcoholic, Eugene's father, W.O. Gant, was an alcoholic as well. Gant would drink in periodic spells, he would have weeks of drunkenness, Eliza would send him away to clinics to get "cured", once upon his return, Eliza went to the local bar and told them that if anyone of them sold him a drink she would have them put in a penitentiary... Gant would tell others not to get involved in drinking, later that night you could find him sitting with a bottle of whisky or gin. Helen, Eugene's sister, was exposed to Gant's drinking at a young age, she was the only one who could make him be have and sober up, she would feed him scolding hot soup, and bark commands to drink the soup and behave at age seven.

When she became older, she too drank, she tried to hide it from herself in the form of medicinal cures, however she chose to see it, she became an alcoholic as well. Eugene became drunk once, on Christmas Eve, when he experimented with mixing whisky, gin, and rum, and drinking it all in a few gulps. Luckily, he never developed a taste for it. W.O. Wolfe, Thomas's father, was an alcoholic. His wife Julia feared him when he was drinking, it was a major factor that sponsored her wanting to buy the boarding house. Alcoholism played a major role in Look Homeward Angel, and in Thomas Wolfe's life. It gave him a great fear of such vices, that effected his outlook on life.

Eliza, Eugene's mother, owned and operated a boarding house in Altamont, people of all cultures would stay there, whether passing through or there for the summer, business was generally good, there were always people there. At age six Thomas Wolfe and his mother moved into an eight-teen room Victorian boarding house, an Old Kentucky Home. In the novel Eugene his mother, and brothers and sisters moved into a eighteen-twenty room boarding house. Living in the boardinghouse with the constant coming and going of strangers many they never knew anything about except they paid on time. Eugene and Thomas both developed insecurities that would plague them the rest of their lives. Being "autobiographical fiction" Look Homeward Angel, portrayed many of the same people and places Wolfe had actually encountered in his life.

Having lived in North Carolina a majority of his life he could think of no place he knew better than North Carolina for his novel to be set in. Any one who knew of Asheville and the people living there would have no problem filling in the names and places in his novel. For example in Look Homeward Angel Eugene attended the University of North Carolina in Pulpit Hill. A pulpit is an elevated platform used in preaching or conducting a worship service, a chapel is a small house of worship usually associated with a main church. Conclusion, Pulpit Hill = Chapel Hill. Wolfe uses in numerous words in Look Homeward Angel, 240,000 to be precise, but none of them concisely.

He would 'beat around the bush' and take a page to say that which other authors could say in a sentence. One reason he used vast numbers of words, was because he had set himself to writing 1,500 words a day while abroad. The result was a novel, O Lost, which was later renamed Look Homeward Angel. The novel is without plot, the authors style fluctuates, making the novel boring and inconsistently hard to follow. The only hint at a climax is the death of Eugene's brother Ben. The novel is considered a wonderful piece of literature by many, mainly due to the main characters constant conflicts with his inner self, between the things he feels and the things he wants to feel.

But these are not even that prevalent in the novel, and the constant variations in tone makes these conflicts hard to discern.