NathanaelWest’s MissLonelyhearts : A Manifestation of Modern Man’s Psychic and Spiritual Death

Abstract

The research shows and aims at the predicaments facing modern man , the decay , the pestilence and the sterility of the modern American world during the 1930s both on psychological and spiritual levels . The research also exposes the tension deep inside Miss Lonelyhearts , the novel’s protagonist , and its title character ; how he is torn between his instinct and conscience , his soul and body , the conflicting forces responsible for his imbalance and tragic downfall . Miss Lonelyhearts , as a representative of modern man , has abandoned God and become indulged in worldly pleasures and moral corruption , the consequences of which he has to face . Set in the early 1930s , Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) presents a vivid picture of American life during the Great Depression , “ the worst and longest period of high unemployment and low business activity in modern times .’’ 1 As a period , it brought about many changes in the attitude of American people towards different aspects of life or in lifestyles . In fact , West wrote this novel as a response to what had happened in America during this era which brought into existence human sufferings , and made it a reality of all American people .