The Theme of Waste Represented in Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 건국대학교 GLOCAL(글로컬)캠퍼스 스토리앤이미지텔링연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 스토리앤이미지텔링 / 13호 / 237 ~ 257페이지
· 저자명 : 김은숙

초록

This paper identifies and discusses the theme of waste running throughout Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. The first section of the book deals with Gilmore's early life and his numerous detentions in juvenile crime facilities and, later, prison. It details his release several months prior to his first murder and the relationships he establishes during that time. Using the “western voices,” Mailer lays bare the wasted lives of Utahns in a small town in this section. They cannot rise above a world defined by dope, booze, sex, and violence. At the center is Gilmore and his story is a “profile of wasted life.” After spending over half of his life in jail, there was nothing left to live for.
The second section of the book focuses more extensively on Gilmore's trial, including his refusal to appeal his death sentence, his dealings with Lawrence Schiller and his attorneys' continued fight on his behalf. This section is less about people in Utah than people who come to Utah from the outside world, the Coasts. Schiller is the most persistent of the media hounds, a vibrant representative of the “eastern voices” which tell America what kind of culture it shall have. The story of Schiller doing a story on Gilmore is a tale of quick thinking, much money, and a hollow civilization. It, too, is a waste. Expending a lot of energy and considering every angle, Schiller has dug and dug out for the truth about Gilmore, but we still have no to little knowledge about him, where he came from, what he did. Through more than a thousand pages of minute details, through a panoramic view of the social activity that revolves around Gilmore’s hour to hour behaviour, through full documentation of Gilmore's court appearances and his decision to demand his execution, and finally an execution, there is no progress, no change, no lesson learned. It is all a waste. The big fault of this book is its overwhelming length. There is no reason it needed to be over 1000 pages.

참고자료

· 없음