Literary Analysis Essay revised draft paper

Date: 10/22/2015

Love and money in «Hello out there» by W. Saroyan

«Hello out there» - the play of the famous writer and recognized playwright William Saroyan which was written in 1941. It is necessary to consider that William Saroyan in his works sought to present love to people, to incline them to high feelings, to their spiritual de velopment, to adjust them to the desire of feeling the pulsation of their life. He was con vinced that first of all the literature has to teach how to love, make people require self- understanding and harmony, order and justice. In the preface to his first collection Saroyan formulated his position: if you become angry don't let your love be strangled by it. Strive to live. According to Balakian, N. (36) we can note three aspects that were to become character istic of Saroyan's style: a humanistic vision; a reaching out to the ideal, the promise, the ex pectation; and finally, a continuous search for a reality that would absorb the dream.

The leitmotif of the play is love and escape from the loneliness. The main topic of the play: the confrontation between loving people, with clean thoughts and faith in goodness on the one hand and violent society with its own values ​​and cruel rules on the other hand. In this play, I was interested in the question: what prevents love and deprives society of high feel ings and spirituality.

The play consists mainly of the dialogue between two main characters: a Young man who was jailed on suspicion of raping a woman and a Girl, a prison cook. In the course of dialogue, they fall in love with each other, want to get married and are planning to escape to San Francisco. Their plans were not to be due to the murder of the Young man by the Hus band of a Woman allegedly raped by a Young man. Before the Young man was killed the viewer may come to the conclusion that the guy was innocent. He was wounded up in jail because he didn’t give money to a woman who has claimed it after their love affair:

«Young Man: I didn’t know she was your wife. I didn’t know she was anybody’s wife…She asked me to come in» (Saroyan 559).

Immensely glaring loneliness of two main heroes immediately connect their hearts. «Hello - out there!» - the phrase that starts this play by the voice of a Young man and finishes this play by the voice of the Girl. This phrase brings so much loneliness on the one hand and incredible wish to find someone on the other hand: «Young man: All I need is somebody good like you with me…If you go along with me, I’ll be the finest guy anybody ever saw. I won’t be wrong any more» (Saroyan 553). Their quickly appeared love is not passionate, but at the same time it is impetuous and sensual, it becomes and rises like a tool to build their happiness:«Young man: People are the same everywhere. They’re different only when they love somebody. That’s the only thing that makes ‘em different» (Saroyan 558).

The author points out the globality of the universal problem of loneliness in the society by depersonalizing the characters. The girl’s name is Emily, but the main character calls her Katie, and names himself - Photo finish. Their happiness was not destined to happen. What has prevented the development of their love? The reason for such a tragic outcome was the thing that has also become the reason for putting him into the prison, the thing which was in his shoe when he was killed - the money. The Young man from the very beginning of the play in the story about himself told that he was not successful because he didn't have a stable income and was a gambler. The girl, describing her relationship with her father told that he lived on welfare and was constantly taking away her salary. The Young man refused to give the money to a Woman for their love affair. The fact that he died and the money remained in his shoe is a symbolic proof that love cannot be bought or sold. Eventually, there is no place for life and development in the world where a Young man is being blamed for not buying a «street» love. Otherwise: «Young man: You know when you get enough of that money, you can’t be wrong any more - you are right because the money say so» (Saroyan 553). This words sound ridiculous and absurd after the young man’s death.

Allegedly injured husband probably had known for a long time what his wife was do ing and possibly covered her way of earning money. He committed the murder not in order to defend the honor of his wife, not due to his love to her, but to do the thing the society was waiting from him.

In Conclusion, Balakian N.(114) mentioned that W. Saroyan showed his attitude towards money by his speech: « I don't want to make money on a book…I just want to be published in the public libraries». The money ceases to be a measure of value and means of payment, it becomes a vital and valuable idol who kills and devalues spirituality. A person who lives qui etly in a world ruled by greed for money, who is a part of the broken system is a dead man. This topic was relevant in the mid-twentieth century, it was relevant thousand years ago and it remains relevant for now. People in the selection of priority between love and money pref- erence for the latter without realizing that this fact deprives them and their family the most important in the world thing - their love. We can not get rid of the problem with money, but we can bring up a right attitude towards it and towards the main thing that develops our souls - our love. References:

Balakian, N. «The World of William Saroyan». Bucknell University Press, 1998. Web. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=4KDmMW_lUoQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Balakian,+IN.«The+World+of+William+Saroyan»&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAGoVChMI7-XIgNvRyAIVQtssCh2B3Qy0#v=onepage&q=Balakian%2C%20IN.%C2%ABThe%20World%20of%20William%20Saroyan%C2%BB&f=false