The Story Archive

Sophie's Choice

William Styron · 1979 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

A young Virginian arrives in Brooklyn in 1947 to write his first book and takes a room below a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz and her volatile Jewish lover. Their quarrels and reconciliations pull him in as confidant, and across the summer Sophie hands him her history in pieces, each account revising the last. Styron took the National Book Award for it and then years of argument over a gentile American writing the camps.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
HistoricalPsychologicalTragedy
Theme
Guilt & ConscienceMemory & TimeLoveSuffering & Endurance
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
InnocentShadowDoomed Lovers
Plot structure
Frame NarrativeNonlinear / FracturedUnreliable Narrator
Symbol / motif
The PrisonThe HouseMusic
Conflict
vs Selfvs Society
Mode / tone
RealistTragic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

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