An Insight Into American Politics In The Public Burning

The publication of The Public Burning in 1977 made Robert Coover achieve his prominence and established him as one of the main postmodern writers of the 20th century. The novel is based on the famous historical event which is known as the Rosenberg case. After World War II, the only two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union were involved in the Cold War. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully exploded their first atomic bomb, which made the American government frantic. Later, the Rosenberg couple was arrested and accused of having delivered the atomic secrets to the Russians as the core of the ring and finally they were electrocuted as a way of cleaning house.The thesis can be divided into five parts. The first part is served as the introduction. In this part, the writer, Robert Coover's life and experience will be introduced in detail. In addition, both abroad and domestic critical reviews on The Public Burning, will be introduced and discussed in this part.The second part confirms one of the author's political conceptions—the American politics has the characteristic of class. This part will focus on the dynamic character, Nixon, and Uncle Sam's violation to him. The function and the author's intention of such design are to be further discussed as well in this part.The third part analyzes the deception of American politics. The government intends to keep the American belief to make the people hopeful and faithful to their nation. But if the belief can only be kept by sacrificing lives of the innocent populace, then it will become a complete deceit. In addition, the whole judicial system is manipulated by Uncle Sam, the real boss of American politics. There are some other deceits exposed in this part which make it really prominent that the American politics is deceptive.The fourth part recounts the absurdity in American politics. The Vice President and accuser not only acts like a clown but also has an affair with Ethel, the accused person; he arrives at the scaffold directly from prison of Sing Sing through the space. The author just adopts the absurd actions to serve as a foil to the absurdity in American politics.The fifth part is the conclusion of the thesis. This part reviews the background of this historical event and comments on the significance of the author's extraordinary writing skills. In addition, this part summarizes all the political conceptions the author revealed—the characteristic of class, the deception and the absurdity of American politics.