Struggle for Survival: A Comparative Study of Simone Schwarz-Bart’s the Bridge of Beyond And Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea

The main objective of this article is to explore the theme of struggle for survival as an American baroque way of life which conforms with Alejo Carpentier’s theory of the marvelous real. In Latin America, Carpentier argues that the fantastic is not to be discovered by subverting or transcending reality with abstract forms. Carpentier saw power in the marvelous real. According to him, the marvelous begins to be unmistakably marvelous when it arises from an unexpected alteration of reality (the miracle) from a privileged revelation of reality, an unaccustomed insight that is singularly favoured by the unexpected richness of reality. Baroque, on the other hand, is an art of relating to, or having characteristics of a style of artistic expression prevalent especially in the 17th century that is marked generally by the use of complex forms, bold ornamentation, and the juxtaposition of contrasting elements often conveying a sense of drama, movement and tension. Based on the literary theories of the marvelous real and psychoanalysis, the article brings to light the cultural traits that characterise struggle for survival in Simone Schwarz-Bart’s The Bridge of Beyond and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. While employing documentary and comparative research methods, the study reveals, first and foremost, that struggle for survival is basically an American baroque culture characterised by such traits like freedom, fantasy, extravagance, subversion and oddity. The research also demonstrates that struggle for survival is transposed in the two novels by the philosophical and literary processes of dualism which brings together two opposing principles to show the baroque nature of American culture. The study concludes that American literature subscribes largely to the marvelous reality theory of Alejo Carpentier.