Suffering and Misery in Canadian Literature from 1940-1970

There are many different mythos ideas in Canadian literature in the period of 1940-1970. However, a most unique and apparent mythos was that of the suffering and misery, which was so dominant in many of the novels. All the novels had a theme of suffering or misery. One of the main characters was always trying to overcome a hurt, trying to pull themselves out of a misery, or attempting to cease their suffering. Of the suffering and misery that took place so dominantly in many of the novels, the majority of it was emotional suffering. However, there was also a combination of physical, psychological, and cultural suffering as well. Furthermore, it was the emotional, physical, psychological, and cultural suffering and misery which manifested itself into a mythos for Canadian literature dominant in the period of 1940-1970.

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept written by Elizabeth Smart is a novel entirely focused on a woman's emotional struggle towards acceptance and happiness within a relationship that could never be what she wants it to be. The woman within this novel is in love with a married man. A famous married man. However, she desires the kind of true love that everyone desires. No secrets, no hiding, and most importantly the ability to actually live their lives together. It this love yet non-love that envelops her within a life of emotional suffering and misery. She is suffering for the man she loves but yet cannot have because another woman already has him;

Perhaps I am his hope. But then she is his present. And if then she is his present, I am not his present. Therefore, I am not, and I wonder why no one has noticed I am dead and taken the trouble to bury me. For I am utterly collapsed. I lounge with glazed eyes, or weep tears of sheer weakness. (By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, pg.85)