An Angry Younn Man Who Is Not That Angry?

As the most influential realistic writers in the1950s, Angry Young Men weremainly born from working-class families. Most of them once participated in wars whichled to their discontentment to the economy, politics and culture etc. in Britain. Therefore,these young men, who have received higher education at universities, criticize theBritish tradition and the mainstream culture in their works, which are represented byJohn Wain’s Hurry on Down and John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger. Lucky Jim,compared with the major works of this movement, is a little unique. While most of theworks show their criticism directly and fiercely, Kingsley tactfully employs comictechniques in Lucky Jim, whose playfulness and sarcasm strengthen the expression ofthe author’s anger. This thesis aims to prove that Kingsley, as a comic writer, expresseshis anger more subtly and profoundly in Lucky Jim through the analysis of the comicelements in this novel, which involve the plot, characters and language.On the comicality of plot, the contingent success of Jim, pranks and parody are themain elements Kingsley employs. Jim’s contingent success constantly brings surprisesand romantic feelings to the reader. Besides, the parody of the traditional fairy tale ofCinderella and the pranks also greatly contribute to the comicality of the novel. Apartfrom the comic effects, the common feature of the plot also subtly shows the lack ofsocial mobility at that time. On the comicality of characters, Kingsley mainly applies the uglification of and comparison between the characters, which strengthens thecomical effects. Through the uglification of the characters, Kingsley firmly engraves thedeformed image of the bourgeoisie and the patriciate in readers’ mind. Among all thecharacters, Jim is a completely new comic character of campus novel. The successfulcharacterization of Jim is a powerful critique to the campus atmosphere in Britain at thattime. On the language of this novel, Kingsley employs rhetorical devices, subtleinterlocutions and humorous soliloquy to increase the comicality of the novel. As for therhetorical devices, Kingsley adopts irony and metaphor to combine his anger and humorperfectly. Meanwhile, the interlocution and soliloquy of Jim express his anger as well asthe great gift of Kingsley’s comic writing techniques.Therefore, the analysis of this novel from the perspective of comicality can explainwhy Kingsley is an angry young man and further readers’ understanding of his writingtechniques and thoughts.