Harry Crews is one of the most well-known and influential southern writers of the twentieth century. He has written many novels, short stories, and biographies throughout his life of being a writer. His stories often pertain to the dramatic and exciting life of living in the south in small towns such as the one he grew up in as a child. Throughout Crews’s life, he was involved with a lot of violence and family problems such as divorce that led to anger. All of the problems that Crews had throughout his life allowed for his writing to be extremely detailed and exciting for the reader. The fast-paced and troubled life of Harry Crews led to heavy drinking that he regrets deeply. This heavy drinking ultimately could have been a good aspect for his writing because this allowed for Crews to be in violent and reckless situations that add excitement to his writing. Harry Crews once wrote, “Alcohol and I had many, many marvelous times together – we laughed, we talked, we danced” (McKittrick). One of the most important aspects of southern writing is extensive details, exciting plots, and creative writing styles such as southern dialect. Being an alcoholic and having such a troubled violent upbringing is one of the reasons Harry …show more content…
In one of Crews’s biographies, he writes, “Being good, southern, ignorant country boys, we did the good, southern, ignorant country thing: we volunteered as quickly as possible, anxious as we were to go and spill our blood in the good, southern, ignorant country way” (Suave). The reason Crews decided to enlist in the military was because he wanted to leave the isolated world he lived in and go to see the outside world. The importance of his enlistment is that he began reading extensively during his time in the marines. Becoming a marine was one of the most influential factors that cause Crews to become a southern