Kingsley Amis

Lucky and unlucky in lifeRecently I have read the book -Lucky Jim, which was written by Kingsley Amis, who was an English novelist, critic and poet. Kingsley Amis was born in the south of London in a middle-class family in 1922. His father was a business clerk. When he graduated from middle school, he experienced the second of World War, and servedin the army as a second lieutenant. Then, he joined the Communist Party. After that, he worked as a lecturer in English at the University College from 1948 until 1961.Kingsley Amis was realistic. And he was called “the angry young” with other writers such as John Wain for the reason that they expressed the dissatisfaction and anger of the serious class and social status, and the obvious distance between the rich and poor in England. Lucky Jim was the representative work of “the angry young”.Although these works had no innovative literature form, they manifest new context. With this characteristic feather, Lucky Jim was popular among most readers for its funny, interesting but thought-provoking plot.Lucky Jim, published in 1954, was Amis’s first novel .It was something so different, so fresh and so brilliantly clever that critics welcomed it with excitement. It gave a remarkably good picture of a certain section of society-but it was not just a social novel. This book was distinguished from other novels before it because in other novels ,the hero and the heroine was usually braver, or more noble, or in some way better than most of us are in real life, however, in Lucky Jim , We identified ourselves as Dixon, but he was not a hero. He was not brave or noble or even very good .He was very much like most of us. Namely, he was certainly real and maybe the story also existed in the real life.In lucky Jim, Dixon, a very common person, had no handsome appearance and no glorious family background. He was only a temporal history teacher in a college away from London. However, as a matter of fact, he did not like this occupation especially in such environment that his professor, Welch, in the college was apedantic, ignoramus and deceptive man. Dixon did not like him but he must please him for this man’s decisive power over his future, so he tried to make Welch like him in order to live in the position. Welch told him to contribute his recent academic achievements to a magazine as a condition to retain. And he was asked to attend the Welch’s family party and agreed with delight. He also promised to take part in the academic presentation held by the college in the end of term, and title is“the lovely England”. However, everything did not happen by anyone’s expectation. Dixon’s academic achievement was embezzled by some professor. At the academic presentation, he drunk and imitated Welch’s disgusting manner. But the conclusion is perfect. Dixon became Gore-Urquhart’s secretary, and lived a happy life with Christine.Lucky Jim was the typical of “the angry young” work. It used a humorous writing skill, told a plain story and criticized the social reality. It used relaxed and plain description to expose the social reality and political views, so that the majority of the people can understand the book, even the common people.Look at its content, the characters were the vessel of the clerisy after the War. The hero, Dixon was an intelligent man but his talent was not high regard by that society. He only wanted to live an easy and common life, but the society often played jokes on him. From some aspect, he was a tragic figure. Although he hated the disingenuous relationship between people and disliked these people, he needed to pretend and forced a smile on his face just for earning a living. So he was at the mercy of Welch, more exactly, was the life. Not only Welch but also his roommates made the Dixon’s life more difficult. “From behind Dixon to the left came laughter bursting unpleasantly through a nose. He glanced round to see John’s face split by a grin. The large eyes with their short eyelashes were fixed on him.（line11,page14）”these sentences precisely described his companies make fun of him. And when he pressed the magazine to publish his achievement, unfortunately, he found it was stolen. In the end, he still can not hold on his occupation. “Several heads werebeing turned in the first few rows, and the principal，Dixon saw ,was staring rather angrily at the area of disturbance . In his own general discomfort, Dixon, who could never understand afterwards how or why he did it, produced an excellent imitation of Welch’s introductory braying sound. The uproar, passing the point where it could still be considered as applause, grew louder. (line4, page118) ”this was the climax of the novel. Dixon drunk and imitated Welch, and finally he lost his job. Although these words came out when he had drunk, they had hidden in the Dixon’s inner heart for a very long time. This was Dixon’s voice, and it was also the voice of middle class in England. Amis skillfully expressed his thoughts to the novel. As the title“Lucky Jim” said that Jim was not only a tragic figure completely, but also a lucky man. Finally, he became a private sectary for his girlfriend’s uncle, and had a happy life. This end was idealism. The author reposed his expectation in his novel. Generally speaking, Dixon was the spitting image of the author.Dixon was not a real hero, but he also possessed many good qualities. For example,“If he’d been there himself, Dixon thought now for thousandth time, he’d have been able to prevent her, or, if too late for that, to get to the hospital a good hour and a half earlier. (line12 page9) ”Dixon’s psychology activity manifested he was an upright and kind man.From this novel, I have learned the features of the novel in that era. It used humorous and easy-understanding words to express the author’s thoughts, satirized the social reality, and longed for the ideal life. From this novel, I also learned that life is various. We cannot always unlucky or always lucky.。