American writers do not have a fixed society to describe.
美国作家并没有一个一成不变的社会可供他们描写。
The only society they know is one in which nothing is fixed and in which the individual must fight for his identity.
他们所了解的社会只是一个万事皆变、人人为出人头地而奋斗的社会。
This is a rich confusion, indeed, and it creates for the American writer unprecedented opportunities.
这确实是一个五彩缤纷、错综复杂的社会，它为美国作家提供了前所未有的创作机会。
That the tension of American life, as well as the possibilities, are tremendous is certainly not even a question.
美国生活的极度紧张和它提供的无限的发展机会已经是尽人皆知、毫无疑问的事实了。
But these are dealt with in contemporary literature mainly compulsively ; that is, the book is more likely to be a symptom of our tension than an examination of it.
但当代文学作品中对这些问题的描写却很带勉强性。也就是说，这些作品不是对我们社会中的紧张生活的深入分析，倒更像是这种紧张生活的直接反映。
The time has come, God knows, for us to examine ourselves, but we can only do this if we are willing to free ourselves of the myth of America and try to find out what is really happening here.
天晓得，现在该我们对自己进行一番检查的时候了。但如果我们要将自己从美国神话中解放出来，并设法弄清楚这个国家的现实情况究竟是怎样的，我们也就只能这样做。