Canada as Seen in Autobiographies - Term Paper Example

Canada as Seen in Autobiographies There are precious insights, valuable secrets and cloak-and-dagger truths a reader gets from reading the passionate texts written by Canadian writers about their homeland, while they are on trips abroad. Writers such as Morley Callaghan and John Glascow give the reader a rare personal account of their most intimate thoughts and feelings about Canada. In their writing, they keep bringing up issues that relate to Canada, and their experiences abroad engender new reflections on their motherland. In That Summer in Paris, Callaghan writes a memoir of his tour to Paris in the Summer of 1929. He employs a voice with heavy Canadian intonations, making his experience as a Canadian writer in Canada a central theme in the book. Though giving a nostalgic account of his stay at Paris, Memoirs of Montparnasse depict John Glassco’s fiercely Canadian mind as he narrates his escapades in Paris. This paper will explore the issues about Canada that keep recurring in the works of these two authors. Such issues will help secure a rare glimpse of Canada from the authors’ perspectives. That summer in Paris gives the account of the short tour of Morley Callaghan in Paris in the summer of 1929. Callaghan employs a tone that gives the picture that the book really is his expression of confusion at his own identity (eNotes.com). He demonstrates the tag of war between his intellect and spiritualism on one hand, and his physical being and “some other part of him” on the other hand. He elaborates his detachment from his native city, Toronto, by declaring that he was happily alien to the intellectual and spiritual orientation of his native city. “Physically, and with some other part of me, the ball-playing, political, debating, lovemaking, family part of me, I was wonderfully at home in my native city, and yet intellectually, spiritually, the part that had to do with my wanting to be a writer was utterly, but splendidly and happily, alien” [Cal07] He appreciates that that his native town has artists, who include painters, poets, readers and other scholars. However, Callaghan admits that his native town is too British, and he does not hide his loathing for this particular aspect of Toronto. Describing his first encounters with Hemmingway, Callaghan gives the reader a glimpse of what people thought of Toronto and its dwellers back then. When he sees Hemmingway for the first time, he is certain that the man is from Europe, because he says that no Toronto newspaperman would wear a peak cap such as the one that Hemmingway wore[Cal07]. He immediately concludes that the man is Ernest Hemmingway, saying that Europeans are the ones who would wear such peak caps. His tone suggests that the sense of fashion of Toronto dwellers is superior to that of Europeans. Furthermore, Hemmingway states that his reason for coming to Toronto was that he had “heard” that Toronto doctors were very good. He had thus chosen to have his wife deliver in Toronto rather than in Paris[Cal07]. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Hemmingway is not comfortable at Toronto. Callaghan gives a short story that had been going round about Hemmingway back when he was in Toronto. Callaghan promptly debunks those stories. “There is a story that while he was in Toronto he was sending out stories to the little magazines in Paris. This is nonsense.” [Cal07] However, he settles that Hemmingway has something about Toronto that disturbs him. In their discourse, Callaghan makes an intriguing remark about Toronto. While he expresses his gratitude, he feels uncomfortable about it, because, as he puts it: “people I knew in Toronto didn’t say such things to each other”[Cal07] This probably explains his spiritual detachment from Toronto. Callaghan expresses Toronto as a place devoid of any spiritual obligations. Later, Callaghan declares that he has found the reason why Hemmingway is so repulsive of Toronto. He says that while people do would not appreciate his work in Toronto, he was held in awe by English writers in New York, Paris and even London. Hemmingway says of his own work: “Ezra Pound says it is the best prose he has read in forty years,” [Cal07] Callaghan says that his contemporaries in Toronto do not hold Ezra Pound in as high esteem as other young and upcoming English writers do elsewhere. Therefore, Hemmingway fears that his reputation will suffer a blow of oblivion if he continues to stay in Toronto, where his talent is not appreciated as much. This statement gives a confused picture of Toronto. On the one hand, it depicts Toronto as a place that lacks appreciation for fine literature and the artists of the literature. On the other hand, it depicts Toronto as a place whose standards are too high for such “mediocre people as Hemmingway, whose main supporter is Ezra Pound. This is what Callaghan says of Toronto’s view of Ezra Pound: “At that time the poet Ezra Pound was not a big name in Toronto, but to young writers in English, whether they lived in New York, Paris or London, he was the prophet, the great discoverer, the man of impeccable taste.” [Cal07]  This could mean that Toronto-based critics and upcoming writers did not hold Ezra Pound or Hemmingway in as much esteem as critics from other states did. It could also mean that Toronto-based critics were just not as enthusiastic about Ezra Pound as Hemmingway thought they should be. Throughout his autobiography, Callaghan depicts his hometown, Toronto, in different lights, but there are certain facts that come out more strongly than others. One is that apart from abstract reasons such as intellect and spirit, Callaghan loves Toronto. He asserts that if for nothing else, then he loves Toronto for ball-playing, lovemaking and other basal things[Cal07]. Eventually, the picture that Morley Callaghan portrays of Toronto is an acceptable picture, although he has come quite clean that the town has its own shortcomings. Another Canadian writer, John Glassco, writes of Canada with a slightly different tinge of meaning. Writing about Montparnasse, a place in Paris, more fondly than Callaghan does, it seems pretty obvious, from the very outset, that the image of Montreal, his hometown, is bound to suffer. Glassco gives a boisterous account of his life in Paris, happily and effortlessly moving from one memorable experience to another. In this autobiographical work, John Glassco fashionably rebels against his affluent family in Montreal. His escape is not enough; he goes to Paris and leads a care-free life, getting the most his freedom. He does not seem to care about his hometown, Montreal, and he constantly dodges its mention in his memoirs. In the book, he seems to be so completely immersed in the thought of leaving and even forgetting about his experiences in Montreal, that he commits himself to write memoirs about his experiences outside Montreal. While still in Montreal, he had been a surrealist. However, in the book, he confesses that he is ready to drop surrealism and start a catalogue of memoirs to document his adventures outside his home town. “I've already abandoned surrealism and decided to write my memoirs — not a journal but a record of my life written in chapters, like one of George Moore's books — to impose a narrative form on everything that has happened since we left Montreal last February” [Gla12] Already, the excitement in this excerpt can be felt in the voice of the author, ringing with ecstasy and expectation. The memoirs of Montparnasse bring to life the city of Paris, while at the same time depicting a sorry picture of Montreal. On the one hand, Montparnasse is the center of the author’s most entrancing activities, activities that would be the flashpoint of all interest that the book drew. On the other hand, the author only returns to Montreal after he is struck with a dreadful disease, and he has to undergo surgery. The symbolism of this choice of setting is ideal for giving the true picture of what the author takes his home city to be. It portrays Montreal as a somber place, devoid of life and excitement, and lacking in the avid engrossments of life. In fact, the only picture of Montreal the reader gets from the picture is that of a depressing and hopeless place. Sexual desire among people of the same sex is a notable theme in the book Memoirs of Montparnasse, although it is somewhat subdued. Glassco centers his stories of sexual behavior that is considered errant on Paris in most occasions in the book. However, Glassco develops images of errant sexual behavior in Paris in reference to his estranged hometown of Montreal[Ham07]. In fact, one of the reasons he leaves the city is to escape from abuse by his father. He had to silently comply, and his mother’s silent complicity made things no better. "This [self-confessed inability to trust anyone] may have been due to the extraordinary treatment my brother and I suffered at my father’s hands: For many years, from as far back as I can remember, he had inflicted the most savage and shameful beatings on us…” [Gla12] These experiences disturb Glassco so much that he, in fact calls them a form of pornography. He describes it thus: “…all these properly belong in some work of flagellantine pornography…” [Gla12] John Glasgow thus castigates his father for the harsh punishments he would give him, and he actually thinks that his father did it for sexual pleasure. The loathsome depiction of Montreal by Glassco is understandable from this perspective. It is easier to understand why he associates Montreal with a lot of bleakness if these injustices that he suffered at the hands of his father are brought to the light. Glassco is evidently not enthusiastic about Canada and Montreal, in particular. The harsh experiences he had had when in Canada under the care of his father had disillusioned him and estranged him from his hometown, Montreal. Nonetheless, he endeavors to depict Montreal in the light of how he truly knows it to be. He spares no truth about what his experiences in Montreal had been, just as he gives an explicit account of his two year stint at Montparnasse. Conclusion Through the literary works of two Canadian writers, the reader and the critic, alike, can acquire fine details about Canada and its little intrigues that distinguish Canada from other places. On the one hand, Morley Callaghan expresses Toronto as a desirable place as compared to other places. The only problem he seems to have with Toronto is that it cannot facilitate his release as a prolific and successful writer. However, he mocks Paris in a number of ways which seem to favor the image of his hometown, Toronto. On the other hand, we have John Glassco who excitedly describes Paris and the enjoyable moments he had there. In stark contrast, he scarcely talks about his hometown, Montreal, when compared with Morley Callaghan, who seems to keep going back to Toronto in thought. The childhood experiences of Glassco give an insight into why he is so loathsome of his Montreal hometown. The childhood abuse he endured at the hands of his father seems to have been too much to bear, and they reflect on his depiction of Montreal. In his book, Glasco continually depicts Montreal as a somber place, where there is no prospect of happiness, and where there is much to hate. Though their views may be subjective and largely biased, they give the reader a personal way of looking at the pattern of life in the Canadian cities. And, as would be expected of the dwellers of any city, there are those who are grossly disgruntled about the constant hardships they endure in the cities. When they get a chance to leave the city, they may not want to associate with anything that reminds them of the horrendous experiences that they may have gone through in these cities. Likewise, there are those whose experiences in some particular cities cannot allow them to criticize the cities. So is it with the Canadian writers John Glassgo and Motley Callaghan. Works Cited Cal07: , (Callaghan, Morley 9), Cal07: , (Callaghan, Morley 11), Cal07: , (Callaghan, Morley 12), Cal07: , (Callaghan, Morley 12), Cal07: , (Callaghan, Morley 13), Cal07: , (Callaghan, Morley 15), Cal07: , (Callaghan, Morley 9), Gla12: , (Glassco, John 4), Ham07: , (Hammil, Faye), Gla12: , (Glassco, John 38), Read More