To what extent are the characters in the novel “They shoot the horses, don’t they” influenced by the historical and social context?

摘要

This paper focuses on Horace McCoy’s masterpiece They Shoot Horses, Don’t They withudregard to the influences of social-economic conditions of the Great Depression period onudselected characters. McCoy narrates the story of ordinary people who fell down to the bottomudof society in the aftermath of Great Depression; and he creates a masterpiece by narrating theudordinary stories of desperation in an extraordinary storyline, which is of a dance marathon.udRobert and Gloria are the main characters examined, their inner talks, dialogues with eachudother and other competents generate the main line of story and, by this way, socialpsychologicaludmindsets of people who suffered from Great Depression are depicted. Inudaddition to Robert and Gloria couple, Kid, Mattie, Jackie and Mario will also be examinedudregarding their back stories, present conditions which dragged them into such a desperationudand their deformed but still alive hopes and expectations. The existential themes given subtextuallyudenrich the plot as well as it enriches the content of this paper. In this sense,uddesperation, death, sarcasm and hope could be qualified as the keywords of this paper. In thisudcontext, McCoy’s novel gives us a chance to be acquainted with the Great Depression periodudat a multidimensional level; all characters present us a different and distinctive part of whatudhad been happened. Due to these points, this novel is worthy of study and in this paper theudinfluence of that period on the characters is examined.