Sense of Belatedness in William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice

Abstract

Every Poet, by nature, aims to be original and wants to establish his own sublime. He struggles to create his own individual poetic vision without being overcome by the poetic influence of prior poet. Stingo, in Sophie's Choice wants to create his unique identity in writing. He is pulled by his desire to be a writer but equally finds himself in the ‘vaguest notion’ of writing. In the process of seeking his voice in writing, he must pass through different revisionary flights that Bloom has identified. In Sophie's Choice Styron dramatizes the young writer's struggle to occupy a literary territory, and his attempt to evade prior poet's suffocating influence.