In the Garden of the North American Martyrs | Symbolic and Moral Dimensions

In this essay the author discusses the symbolic and moral dimensions of ‘‘In the Garden of the North American Martyrs.’’

‘‘In the Garden of the North American Martyrs’’ belongs to the category, or genre, of literature known as modern realism. Tobias Wolff has often expressed his admiration for the stories of John Cheever and is a particular fan of James Joyce’s collection of stories Dubliners. Despite his canny eye for detail and his gift for dialog, however, Wolff seems to work against the constraints of realism. ‘‘In the Garden of the North American Martyrs’’ in particular dramatizes the tension between the realistic and symbolic ways of looking at the world. The story, in...

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