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William Styron's Sophie's Choice : Poland, the South, and the Tragedy of Suicide

2001; University of North Carolina Press; Volume: 34; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/slj.2001.0028

1534-1461

Bertram Wyatt‐Brown,

Themes in Literature Analysis

Although his revelation came late in his life, few twentieth-century writers can match the candidness of William Styron regarding his inclination to depression. In recent years he seems to have relished the chance to make the recovering melancholic a figure of valor and dignity. Moreover, his novels, most especially Sophie's Choice, show that when under artistic discipline personal issues of this kind can inform and even inspire the writing of fiction. What settings could be more suitable for a literary artist tormented by that poorly understood mental disorder than the Nazi death camps, the stark grayness of wartime Poland under occupation, and the American South where the narrator, a Virginian, has to confront the racial sins of his native land? In addition, Styron creates two memorable figures, Sophie Zawistowska and Nathan Landau. The latter is a victim of extreme madness and Sophie, a former captive of the Holocaust, is still undergoing the agony of that terror. One suspects that Styron's concentration upon near alcoholism and the many manifestations of madness, to which his characters are subject, helps him ride down the fury of his own inner demons. Stingo, the Styron-like hero--Stingo was Styron's nickname at Duke University (West 238)--also has moments of deep and debilitating gloom and anxiety.