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the book, that allows him to pull off the tremendous feat of making
us believe in a character who in many ways is not a human being
at all-but struggling to become one. And this, after all, is the great
problem of the novelist today. Joe Christmas is an incarnation not
only of the "race problem" in America, but of the condition of man.
More and more, not merely the American novel, but all serious con–
temporary novels, are concerned with men who are not real enough
to themselves to be seriously in conflict with other men. Their con–
flicts, as we say, are "internal"; for they are seeking to become
someone.
Joe Christmas lives a life that is not only solitary but de–
tached. He lives in society physically, but actually he is concerned
only with the process of self-discovery, or of self-naming, even of
self-legalization. This is a fate which, as we know, can be as arduous
and deadly as that of the classic heroes. But in Joe Christmas's case,
there is no conflict from positions of strength, no engagement be–
tween man and man--only the search of the "stranger,"
l'etranger,
to become man.
