Sontag's Novel "Benefactor" And The Changes In American Left-wing Literature

The novel "The Benefactor" is one of the representative works of the new left-wing literature in the United States.It clearly reflects the profound changes of the left-wing literature in the 20 th century.The author of the novel,Sontag,is a well-known contemporary American female writer,critic,and public intellectual.She has a wide range of writing fields and has created a series of works that made her famous in the literary world,including novels,dramas,movies,photography,and theoretical works.Her work has a unique style and profound themes.The novel "The Benefactor" was created in the early 1960 s and is her first full-length novel,showing a strong personal style.This novel not only embodies Sontag's aesthetic ideas,but also fits the alternation of old and new left-wing literature in the United States.The characteristics of the times reflect the characteristics of the development of contemporary American left-wing literature.The novel "The Benefactor" describes American society from the perspective of different social classes.It has profound sociality,timeliness,and philosophical rationality,and is mainly reflected in the lives of people such as Hippolyte,Mrs.Anders,and Jean-Jacques.In experience,they are the representatives of ordinary people in American society,representing the ordinary people's survival and psychological state,showing people's inner loneliness,despair and desire for freedom,the escape from real life,and in the novel's name and plot setting contains profound philosophy.The character creation of "The Benefactor" is also a manifestation of American social problems and contradictions.The main character of the novel,Hippolyte,is a young man who has a strong sense of loneliness since he was a child.After growing up,he was out of step with the surrounding hypocritical environment and the personalities around him.He could only choose to escape from the real world,immerse himself in dreams,and finally completely eliminate the meaning of his existence in real life.The loneliness he showed,despair,the emptiness of the soul,the desire for freedom,and the escape from real life are the psychological characteristics of the younger generation in the United States after World War II."The Benefactor" embodies the changes of American left-wing literature in the new social context.In the late 1950 s,due to the rampant McCarthyism,and the left-wing movement itself was unable to adapt to the new development of the post-war capitalist world,it gradually lost its mass foundation,and the old left-wing gradually disappeared.Depressing depression,craving freedom and change,fighting against violence,and paying more attention to human freedom and equality,as shown in "The Benefactor",Hippolyte has been looking for spiritual freedom and expressed his desire for personal freedom.Hippolyte was a representative of young students at that time.He felt depressed and depressed in his life,longing for freedom and change.His life was full of despair,dullness,and coldness.He pursues a meaningful and purposeful life,trying to transcend personal glory and material comfort from the spiritual level."The Benefactor" has distinct literary and social significance.The novel objectively achieves the purpose of evoking the reader's sharper perception of the work,and is also a true representation of the process of losing self,pursuing self,and reconstructing self in extreme split and extremely contradictory people in the postmodern context.It shows people's rebellious feelings about life and art in the post-modern context and saying "no" to tradition."The Benefactor" embodies the strong characteristics of the times and the characteristics of the new left-wing literature.Although after a long period of time,left-wing literature still has unique enlightening significance today.