Tropic Of Cancer

            
             Henry Miller was born in New York on December 26, 1891. He moved to Paris on March 4, 1930 to become a successful writer. His work, "Tropic Of Cancer", is probably one of the most unique, bizarre, and hilarious novels ever written in the history, and it is considered his premier work. In this autobiographical story, he portrayed his life in Paris, talked about whores he slept with, and spoke ill of his friends. He used a tremendous number of sexual, racial, and obscene expressions in the story.
             His writing style was distinct from that of other well-educated authors in that it was just like street talk. Because of theses explicit sexual expressions, this book was banned in all English-speaking countries until 1961. What was he trying to tell us through the two hundred eighty six pages of *censored*? As the readers flip the pages, they will find the following deep meanings behind the story: 1) he railed against the old conformity and tried to start the sexual revolution, 2) he condemned materialism and taught us the meaning of happiness, and 3) he portrayed the importance of time and its transience. .
             By explicitly portraying his sex life, Henry Miller rebelled against the old conformity and attempted to make a change in people's phobic attitude towards sex. Although ancient Romans or Greeks had considered human sexuality as an art, the majority of the world had become allergic to these kinds of expressions after the fall of the civilizations. At the beginning of the 20th century, some artists and authors began expressing human sexuality in their works. Henry Miller was one of them. In spite of artistic beauty, their works were labeled as obscene because the society was against the expression of human sexuality. Miller railed against America's sexual schizophrenia and he was rewarded by being banned, burned, pirated, deprived both of his livelihood and his power to reach his potential audience (handout paper "Why Henry Miller?").