Brautigan's 'Grider Creek'

Brautigan's Grider Creek is written in a very symplistic style with no figurative language,ensuring that it becomes easily accessible for all his readers. It begins with a long, un-punctuated sentence which serves to set a tone of monotony for the piece. Through setting this monotonous tone, Brautigan is able to hint at the monotony of the subject's life, an idea which is also conveyed through the content of the Grider Creek.

Unlike many of Brautigan's other writings, Grider Creek has an air of sadness about it, rather than one of humor, with the piece conveying a sense of unfulfilled dreams. The fact that it is entitled Grider Creek seems somewhat ironic, as one reads it expecting to find a description of the place, however upon reading one learns that the individual was never able to reach the place he desired. Through opting for the title Grider Creek, Brautigan is able to enhance this notion of sadness, as it highlights the subject's lack of fulfillment of his ambition. This melancholy tone is also enforced through Brautigan's choice of language. Through his inclusion of the sentence 'the map was nice though', Brautigan is able to induce pity in the reader, as the person still seeks to find happiness in a map, something which conveys an idea of almost naive optimism.

It is perhaps here that parallels can be drawn between Brautigan and the beat poets, as, in this instance, he uses his writing to convey a sense of being at the lower end of society and unable to achieve his goals, a theme which is seemingly recurrent in beat writings.

It must be noted, however, that this sense of sadness as portrayed in Grider Creek is something not necessarily common to all Brautigan's writings, and the above comparison of Brautigan to the the beats is based solely upon Grider Creek.