Fiction and Post-modernism

Post- modernism is similar to Modernism beca rehearse in many respects the two movements are similar. Post-Modernism simply means that a new multiplication concluded, as its elders had d ane, that at that place are no certainties and that vitality has no meaning beyond what we can travel to upon it. It is in technique that Post-Modernism distinguishes itself from Modernism and it started in Europe and Latin American in 1945 and in trade union America in 1960. In Post-Modernism, there was a notion that it was absurd that literature could invite deportment steadily and see it whole.Instead, fragments, individual perceptions, incoherence and even drug-induced hallucinations seemed more existent and in touch with the measure than any claim of stability or unity. The stories I will be whole steping further in to, to see how they represent Post-Modernism, are The Babysitter, by Robert Coover, The Balloon, by Donald Barthelme, and Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot, by Robe rt Olen Butler, Jr. The Babysitter is a fragmented figment about a babysitter taking business concern of two children while their parents attend a cocktail party.The f fit has many elements of sexuality in it and the same plot line included distinguishable endings, such as the babysitting being raped by her boy mate and his friend, the childrens father seducing the babysitter, and even the possibility of the young child drowning in the bathtub. The babysitter is watching television shows and switches lynchpin between a drama and a mystery, and this mirrors the fragmented situation that is given to the reader.This story represents Post-Modernism because Post-Modernism does not look for a unified sense of self in the individual like the world the individual is a hit-or-miss collection or collage of miscellaneous pieces of the external culture. In this story, the reader can be very broken as to what is truly happening. Did she actually get raped by her boyfriend and his friend? Or did she get seduced by the childrens father? At the end of the story, we dont see what happened and it is hinted that there was a murder, unless there is no stylus to confirm this. This story has over carbon paragraphs, and they do not connect with each other.Going back to try to piece them together to do different plots is impossible because some paragraphs dont even indicate which plot they are a part of. Along the same lines, this work of fiction embraces all aspects of the present culture and puts them in a fantastic combination as a way of conveying the fragmentation of contemporary life history. Events in life arent always neat and in vow we can live scattered lives and this story represents how we see things in our everyday life. in that respect is no chronological narrative, but instead scattered fragmentations that do not always make sense, effective like how a persons true life is.Lastly, this story represents Post-Modernism because it is metafiction the point of the story is about the process of making fiction. I felt this story had a pastiche of different fiction stories in it, and as a reader we are not sure which one is the truth, or if any of them even happened for that matter. A device of metafiction is the story addressing specific conventions with the story itself, and The Babysitter completed this by using the conventions of paragraph and plot, and portraying them in an unconventional way.There were many elements of Post-Modernism used in The Balloon as well. This story is about a seemingly markless inflate that suddenly appeared in NYC. It seems the narrator hyperbolised the balloon one night while people were sleeping and covers almost the wide-cut southern half of Manhattan. Everybody is mesmerized by this balloon and are so fascinated as to where it came from and what it means. By the end of the story, it is unsure as to whether there really was a balloon there or whether it was just part of the imagination of the narra tor.In Post-Modern thought, any sense of a linking idea or ism or even the notion of scientific progress is rejected. In this story, there was no logical think as to what the balloon represented. It appeared there and people were amazed by it, but there was no real explanation as to how it appeared and what the purpose of it was for. Imagination seemed to be used more than logic and reason. Also, a symptomatic of Post-Modernism is that art cannot provide any explanation or unity for experience it cannot explain or unify experience.To me, the balloon was an artistic representation. People were trying to figure out what it was meant for, but it seemed to provide no purpose for them. The unaccompanied person it mightve provided purpose for was the narrator, but I find it odd how he would inflate this big balloon and put it in a place where half of NYC can see, only to use it for his own purpose. Just like with The Babysitter, the point of the story is more about the process of met afiction rather than corpulent a story. I feel the narrator was using the balloon as a symbol in his own story.The balloon represented a time of unhappiness for him because his love was away and when she came back the balloon was removed and reserved for another time of unhappiness. Lastly, there are elements of Post-Modernism in Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot. This story is about a parrot that supposedly used to be a man, but had died and was now a parrot. The parrot was bought by his widow, and now he could look about and see how her life is now and to reflect on his previous life and the way he is now.Post-Modernism does not look for a unified sense of self in the individual like the world the individual is a random collection or collage of miscellaneous pieces of the external culture. This story really did not have very much unity and it wasnt certain whether the parrot was supposed be like a reincarnation of the man, or just a symbol of what he had become. Most p eople in life dont believe that a man could die and then become a parrot, and when the parrot is exploring the world around him, it is a random collection. All of the miscellaneous things he sees around him now, he sees in a different light.Similarly, art itself is a collage, a collection of fragments that create no unity. It isnt certain whether the parrot was only alive after the man had died, or if the mans soul was transformed in the parrot. The pieces of the story do not always fit together so the reader can be confused as to what truly happened and at the end the fate of the bird is unknown. Also, a characteristic of Post-Modernism is that satire, parody, jokes, and black humor often dominate the tone of a work of fiction. This story had some funny elements in it.There is a scene where the man, in the form of the parrot, is mocking the man that his widow is with. He struggled to say words, and is able to call the man a cracker and also makes a comment when the man is nude and says peanut, and this goes without byword that he is mocking the mans manhood size. He figured there is no way he can get his widow back, so he resorts to name calling in order to make the man who is loving his wife feel less superior. Post-Modernism was very similar to Modernism, but there is no unified sense of self in the individual.In most of these stories, the individual, like the world, is a random collection or collage of miscellaneous pieces of the external culture. I enjoyed reading these stories because they make you think a lot about what the point of the story is, if there even is one or the author could be using the metafiction for the story. Either way, these short stories challenge the reader to figure out why the author envisioned the characters and plot the way they are, and what we as readers can take away from the story.