Reality Through Insanity——A Survey of the Neurotic Heroes in American Novels of the 1960s (Continued)

摘要

Norman Mailer has made a profound analysisof the mad logic of the Vietnam war in his Armiesof the Night, a novel of new journalism whichconcludes the schizophrenic environment of Ameri-can society is at the root of this lunatic war: "He (Norman Mailer) came at last to the saddest conclusion ... that the centre of America might be insane. The country had been living with a controlled, even fiercely controlled, schizophrenia which had been deepening with the years. Perhaps the point had now been passed." (AN. 188)Traditional Christianity as a unifying force inlife has been able for many years to keep somekind of sanity. But it may now be on the decline.