E.E. Cummings

The Enormous Room

Cummings had written many books, The Enormous Room is one of them. This book is Cummings’s autobiographical narrative of the time he spent in the concentration camp, La Ferte Mace. Cummings and his friend which were both part of the Ambulance corps in France, they were suspected of spying and were imprisoned. (4)

 

In this book, Cummings describes the prisoners with whom he shared his captivity with and the surroundings of the prison camp. This book is written in the form of a pilgrimage. When reading this book, the reader will follow Cummings along three parts of his journey. The first part tells us the story before La Ferte Mace, in the second part it tells the reader Cummings; second day in the enormous room. Lastly, the departure from the prison. (4)

 

Cummings is enclosed in a cell, which he refers to as the “enormous room”. This room is eight feet by forty feet, which makes it oblong. This room restricts and unites international menagerie. (Dutch, Belgian, Spanish, Turkish, Arabian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, German, French, and English), this includes himself. Among these members, there is one in particular, which was memorable, Surplice. The court jester of the enormous room, he was known as the scapegoat and the fool. (4)

 

In this book Cummings tends to focus more on the development of characters rather than the story. Therefore, each character is described in detail; he states their personality, habits and the way they act. He does this so that the reader gains a better vision of the character. Instead of spending chapters telling the story, he focuses on a single character. He did this because; he wanted the readers to care a lot more about those characters. (4)