Abstract

THEME OF REBELLION IN SILLITOE S NOVELLA: THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE RUNNER

Uzma Nikhat

Volume: 5 Issue: 1 2015

Abstract:

Alan Sillitoe (1928- 2010) an English novelist, poet, short story writer, children's book writer, playwright and a social critic, was born in Nottingham ,a birth place that he shares with DH Lawrence. Grouped among the Angry Young Men of the 1950's and a famous working-class novelist, he shattered the sentimental portrayal of working-class life through his major works Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Key to the Door, The Ragman's Daughter, The Flame of Life, A Start in Life and many others. But his fame rests on two of his major works, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning novel and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, (novella) the title story of a collection of short fiction. Sillitoe is at his best in the portrayal of working-class life that struggle for identity and above all the theme of rebellion and isolation that dominate his work. In many of his novels and short stories, he presents his heroes, who with few exceptions are member of the labouring class, rebelling against those mainstays of proletarian literature of the 1930's oppressive management and conservative politicians. While the equalitarian society which Sillitoe desires, is far from becoming an actuality, the theme of rebellion is at best somewhat muddled for a "working-class” novelist, as Sillitoe is in a country with the Socialist Labour government, during a time of comparative prosperity. The conflict however can be clearly defined once again by a writer of Sillitoe's predilections if he places his characters in physical bondage. For this reason The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner has proved to be one of the most successful explorations of the theme of rebellion.

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