Huckstepp Analysis
Many aspects of modernity -- including industrialism, nationalism and democracy -- please us and cause rejoicing when they are combined in the ideal form of a national state. Unfortunately, these same dimensions of modernity also wreak havoc in the world today as manifested in imperialism, class struggle and single-party dictatorships, a global population explosion, environmental degradation, growing poverty in the midst of plenty, crime, anomie, and the escalating violence caused by ethno-national revolts and genocide in the name of ethnic cleansing.
Both Huckstepp and The Passing are novels that deal with a specific symptom of modernity: sub-cultures that exist within cities. Huckstepp by John Dale focuses on the underworld of Sydney in the 1980’s and the direct link between this ‘city within a city’ and the demise of its central character, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp. Nella Larson’s The Passing, while set in a city on a different continent and time frame (Chicago/New York in the 1920’s), highlights the same issue, though while Huckstepp deals with the sub-cultures of crime and poverty in modernity, Larson’s novel focuses on the race and class issues that arise in the modern city. It is necessary in our analysis of both texts to recognise the connections that are made between the demise of both characters and the city around them. A powerful metaphor used in both, is that of the corpse. This essay will examine how Dale, in Huckstepp, uses graphic imagery juxtaposed with poetic environmental descriptions to highlight the way in which the modern city contains several contradictions and dichotomies. It will also analyse the way in which Larson utilises the event of Clare Kendry’s death, and the image of her corpse, to make a similar comment on a different city. Through analysing individually these two novels and their use of the image of the corpse as a metaphor, we are able to identify the ways in which they differ and are similar and consequently understand the...
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