Fiction as history: James Jones, 'From Here to Eternity'.

摘要

This study examines one of James Jones's novels, From Here to Eternity, as more than a fictionalization of historic events. Juxtaposing the correspondence between the author and his brother, begun when James Jones enlisted in 1939, and the novel allows an understanding of the extent that the novel was a distillation of Jones' personality and experience.; Jones felt fiction must be pieced from real experiences, but also contain original emotions disguised in the pages of a novel. Analyzing Jones's personal letters, interviews, and experiences offers, with some degree of certainty, the understanding that From Here to Eternity is more than merely a famous novel. It is an entertaining exposition of not only what military service does to men, but also what it emotionally did to James Jones. Thus this study reveals how much an author incorporates the essence of his historical experience—his “soul”—into his work.