A Comparative Analysis of Armies of the Night and The...

Taken at face value, Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test may seem very similar. They are both centered on a major author of the 1960s and his experiencing of historical events of the time, while set in the style of New Journalism. When examined closer, though, it becomes apparent that these novels represent two very different sides of New Journalism – Armies of the Night an autobiography with personal and political motivations, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test a sociological piece which tries to capture the essence of its subjects rather than the absolute facts. By looking at the form and style which the novels were written in and the motives behind Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Wolfe’s The†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"The opening pages of chit chat, the reply to Time magazine, the celebrity-talk about Lowell, Macdonald, Goodman, the fierce competitiveness – all this tells us from the beginning that this is Mailer’s story† (Dickstein 149). By choosing to depict acts in which he took part and from his point of view Mailer is able to make the validity of his statements implicit – he actually saw what he is writing about. At the same time though, questions of how much Mailer’s bias is affecting the novel are raised. Mailer is able to address these questions of possible bias by making it exceedingly obvious when his bias is at play. As Hellmann notes, â€Å"Calling himself ‘the Novelist’ and self-consciously using the contrivances of novelistic form, Mailer makes us view the facts of his work as both reliable (in that we are fully shown their source in his firsthand observation) and doubtful (in that we are constantly reminded that they result merely from such observation)† (39). Instead of trying to hide this bias, Mailer uses it to further strengthen his work. An example of Mailer’s use of bias is in his description of the US Marshals he saw while waiting on the bus which would take him to prison, he begins with â€Å"their faces are considerably worse than he had expected† and â€Å"they had the kind of faces which belong to bad guys in a Western† (150). This establishes Mailer’s biased view of the US Marshals and â€Å"by providing these