Some Fascinating Facts About Armenian-American Classic William Saroyan
William Saroyan is an Armenian-American classic, Pulitzer prize winner for the “The Time of Your Life” play, receiver of Oscar 1944 for the best writing for the “Human Comedy.” He was the fourth child of Saroyan family and the only one who was born in America. Saroyan’s family moved from Armenian Bitlis to America, probably because of instabilities both in Easter and Western Armenia. Saroyan’s father died when he was very young, which had a huge effect on him. Saroyan later paid many visits to Soviet Armenia, met with Armenian political leaders and writers. He even visited Moscow.
Oscar and Sentimentality
After screening the “Human Comedy” shot by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio, William Saroyan was targeted and blamed for his sentimentality. The questions of journalists about that would irritate Saroyan. Once in an interview with a journalist, he replied to that question saying the following.
“A little while ago, we were talking about being Armenian. In “Human Comedy,” Homer McCauley, or Homer Makelyan, or Hrant Makelyan, or Harutyun Mikaelyan, or any other Armenian name, does not speak in a sentimental way. But when an American speaks for him, he immediately becomes sentimental. In other words, what is very natural for an Armenian becomes unnatural for an American. These Americans cannot even act well. The “Human Comedy” was unbearable. I was in the army at the time and wanted to sue Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. I have to leave the question of whether I am sentimental or not for the time to resolve” (Սարոյան, 1991, էջ 401)։
Other than these accusations, the movie also gave him a lot of fame and as the author of “Human Comedy’s” scenario, he received Oscar in 1944 (Խանիկյան, 2017). In 2015, a new film based on “Human Comedy” was shot starring Tom Hanks as the father and Meg Ryan as the mother. The film was entitled “Ithaca.”
Saroyan, Hemingway, and National Dignity
The screening of “Human Comedy” helped Saroyan to gain many new supporters but many critics too. Ernest Hemingway was among those critics (Խանիկյան, 2017).
Hemingway and Saroyan are contemporaries. They had mutual respect and would always read each other’s works. However, they sometimes criticized each other, but from time to time, it would get too harsh. Their relationship wasn’t an easy one, and there were a lot of rumors about these two but mainly on the level of gossips.
“In one of the interviews given in Armenia, Saroyan confesses that he once hit Hemingway in an American bar, knocking down that burly and physically very strong man to the ground. “He insulted my national dignity,” Saroyan explained why he hit Hemingway, and then added, “but he was drunk” (Խանիկյան, 2017).
There is a well-founded impression that Hemingway and Saroyan’s misunderstanding was also connected with Saroyan’s identity. Hemingway was a journalist who witnessed the atrocities of the Turks in Smyrna during the First World War, and while writing the story “In the Port of Smyrna,” he studied various facts about the crimes committed by Turkey and came across the archives of the Armenian Genocide. They left a very heavy impression on him. Hemingway writes about his torturous feelings:
“For the first time in my life I fell into a state that I started seeing all of it in my dreams. Slaughtered pregnant women and newborns came to visit me at night holding hands” (Խանիկյան, 2017).
Saroyan, WWII and the US Army
“In 1942, Saroyan himself went to serve in the army. He first served in the homeland, then moved across the ocean to London, where he would make educational films for the soldiers” (Սարոյան, 1991, էջ 429). Saroyan didn’t perceive war as a liberation struggle against fascism, but rather he perceived it as a senseless massacre that required millions of victims.
“I love life; I accept death… But I reject and hate violence, I sharply hate all those from whom it originates, who use it. I consider injustice, the cruelty that hurts even the finger of a living person, to be more terrible and destructive than the natural death of a person. And when so many people are killed in wars, I experience pain and sorrow that is close to insanity” (Սարոյան, 1991, էջ 421).
Like Hovhannes Tumanyan, another Armenian classic, William Saroyan, other than being a writer, was also a humanist. Belief in the best treats of humanity, kindness, and empathy is the only way to move forward in this yet cruel world. Every piece of his writing was about it. The only thing that we should all hate is probably violence.
Read Saroyan and watch the movies based on his stories.
*All the translations from Armenian to English are done by Margarita Dadyan.
References
Վիլյամ Սարոյան (1991) Ընտիր երկեր. Հատոր չորրորդ, «Նաիրի» հրատարակչություն, ISBN 5–550–00338–4 (հ.4)
Վիլյամ Սարոյան (1988) Ընտիր երկեր. Հատոր երրորդ, «Սովետական գրող» հրատարակչություն, ISBN 5–550–00148–9 (Գիրք 3)
Parev TV (May 29, 2018) Saroyan Rare Clip on Dick Cavett Show 1971. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mncR8HV2qeg
Saroyan, W., (1984), The New Saroyan Reader., William saroyan Foundation, translated by Diana Hambardzumyan, Retrieved from https://www.grakantert.am/archives/414416
Խանիկյան, Ս., (Օգոստոս 20, 2017), Սարոյան vs Հեմինգուեյ. հակամարտությունից մինչեւ հիացմունք, https://mediamax.am/am/news/society/24710
William Saroyan is dead at 72; wrote ‘The time of your life,’ (May 19, 1981), Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/19/obituaries/william-saroyan-is-dead-at-72-wrote-the-time-ofyour-life.html
Burns, J., (June 14, 1982), William Saroyan’s long journey from Fresno to his ancestral land,
