MALCOLM LOWRY, GEORGE ORWELL AND GRAHAM GREENE: THREE VIEWS OF FASCISM

This study of The Ministry of Fear, Under the Volcano and Coming up for Air is an analysis of the way three writers confront the threat of World War Two and the possibility of a totalitarian future. By examing each of the protagonist's wish to return to what he thinks of as an ideal age of innocence and peace, I show how the abstractions they cherish are transformed by the historical moment and are now in the guise of an immediate and particular stranger called fascism. In George Orwell's Coming Up for Air, I explore the way George Bowling's retreat to a frozen past where societal laws are seen as harmonious with natural laws inevitably leads to a conflation of man-made conventions and the natural process. This merging of the two worlds creates an atmosphere in which people find themselves in a position where they cannot doubt how to act. They believe that since the natural world is unalterable and guided by supernatural powers behind the scenes, then the societal must be so governed also. The second part of this study is concerned with Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. Though Geoffrey Firmin also emphasizes magic or supernatural powers rather than personal responsibility, my analysis of this work stresses Lowry's and his main character's tendency to think in abstractions that blur distinctions. This tendency creates a method of thinking that is essentialistic rather than nominalistic, and overlooks the way essences are transformed when they are particularized. In the conclusion of this study, I discuss Graham Greene's The Ministry of Fear. By showing how Greene and Orwell opt for the complexity of character instead of a closed form, I present a link between these writers' techniques and their expressed need to deemphasize concepts and forms in order to stress character and individuality. At other historical moments, such as when individualism is transformed into hedonism, there may be a need to portray the individual as less important than the group. But this study finally states that if literature has a function amongst other disciplines--many of which tend to rely on concepts, theories and types--it is to affirm life and the contingency of character. This may appear obvious, but as Orwell, Greene and Lowry discover, restating the obvious is a never-ending task.