Essays on literary works - 2024

The Life and Works of Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Böll was born in Cologne and grew up in a Catholic, anti-fascist household. His father was a sculptor. Böll worked as a carpenter and then in a bookstore. From 1939 to 1945, he served as a soldier. In the late 1940s, he emerged as an author of satirical and lyrical short stories, primarily anti-war in nature.

Böll's early works—the novellas "The Train Will Come on Time" (1949) and "Where Were You, Adam?" (1951), as well as several short stories in the collection "And Never Said a Word" (1949)—delve into wartime experiences. Their protagonists are soldiers who futilely attempt to escape the horrors of war, passively resist, and ultimately perish. In this intricate narrative, Böll offers an aesthetic evaluation of humanism and barbarism, of perpetrators and victims. War is depicted in all its senselessness, and human greatness can only be affirmed through opposition to it.

After 1950, Böll turned his attention to the social realities of the Federal Republic of Germany. The novel "And Never Said a Word" (1953) marked the beginning of his attempts to provide a literary representation of the dominant forces in West Germany.

The protagonist, an employee of a church institution, leaves his wife and children because he can no longer bear the impoverished existence in a cramped room. Internal conflicts prevent him from severing ties with his family, as these connections represent his only hope in a world driven by greed. Böll criticizes the immoral practices of the ruling class and the corrupt nature of institutionalized Christianity.

In the novel "House Without a Master" (1954), the fates of two women are juxtaposed: the wife of a bourgeois and the wife of a worker. Both have lost their husbands in the war. The house without a master symbolizes, for Böll, the disintegration of the forms of life and the political and moral substance of the bourgeois class. The ability of the protagonists to "remember" is for Böll a means of artistically depicting tendencies towards restoration. The dreams of these women's sons for the future are partially realized.

The aesthetic and ethical perspectives that Böll explores in the 1950s culminate in his 1959 novel "Billiards at Half-Past Nine." The story of a family man and architect reveals the destructive forces of historical development. Böll poses questions to his contemporaries about the ethical and political overcoming of the historical failure of the bourgeoisie.

The action of the novel is confined to a single day — the birthday of the head of the Femeley family. Within this brief span, through flashbacks and shifting perspectives, the novel sums up fifty years of historical development and the lives of individual characters. In the branching of plot lines and the symbol of the buffalo, the author reveals the images of the destroyers and their victims. The novel concludes with a desperate act by an elderly woman who shoots a minister during a parade. This symbolic gesture breaks the fatal course of history, suggesting the possibility of active resistance.

With this novel, Bell reached the pinnacle of critical realism in 50s prose. However, in the early 60s, the author began to experience uncertainty and disillusionment. His assessment of West Germany's social development was negative. Bell made another attempt to harness the transformative power of Christian humanism (founding the journal "Labyrinth"), but soon realized the futility of his efforts. Later, he referred to this period as "entering the labyrinth."

These searches are reflected in the novel "Through the Clown's Eyes" (1963). Its action is also limited to a single day, but unlike "Billiards at Half-Past Nine," it lacks a comprehensive ethical framework.

Undercurrents of disillusionment are also evident in the short story "Unauthorized Absence" (1964). Only with the novella "How One Business Trip Ended" (1966) did Bell take a step forward, posing the question of whether ordinary people can preserve their own sphere of life and, if necessary, defend it. Important ideological and aesthetic prerequisites for this were outlined in the "Frankfurt Lectures" (1964).

In these lectures, Bell posits an inseparable connection between aesthetics and morality, opposing any notion of art as an autonomous entity. The writer seeks the roots of his humanist art in everyday life, in the activities of ordinary people. "Province" and "Center" serve as symbols of moral and social contradictions. For Bell, "province" represents the everyday, human element that finds its nourishment in work and community.