Criticisms

Characters

**This is a summarization of Colin Butler's character criticism. Link in bibliography.**

Colin Butler claims that Clancy's novels are highly regarded because his characters are crafted for "maximum acceptability" (Butler) through all of their aspects. Clancy's most notable character, Jack Ryan, is a middle aged white man who is married. This is highly important to the audience because when they see a relatable character they can more easily connect themselves to the novels and get entranced, but this is not the only reason that Clancy's characters are memorable and entrancing. Most of them have a moral compass focused on "Pax Americana," (Butler) or the American style of thinking. This is very important because the readers that are pro-America will find more similarities between Clancy's character and themselves which will result in them reading more novels that contain the character. This is one reason Clancy keeps similar characters, or their families, throughout his multitude of novels. Clancy also commonly uses highly polarized villains in his novels. This aspect is important because Clancy can use the bias Americans hold towards communist ideals. Clancy’s inclusion of communist villains is crucial to his realistic stories, but it also crafts a sense of hatred that would have been felt by many Americans during the Red Scare. Many Americans were scared of communist spies and had a hatred for them, so Clancy’s communist villains can use this common ideal to entrance readers.

Plot & Setting

**This is a summarization of Jason Cowley's Plot and Setting criticism. Link in Bibliography.**

Similarly, to Butler, Jason Cowley argues that Tom Clancy is a highly regarded author, "arguably the most popular novelist on earth." However, Cowley argues that this fame came from his perfect craft of plot and setting. Cowley claims that Clancy's use of plots describing "The end of the world" and "Iron Curtain"(Cowley) allow Clancy to gain more and more readers. He accomplishes this through his hyper realistic plots and settings. This can be seen in his first novel "The Hunt for Red October." Clancy effectively shows his craft by giving descriptions of the Red October and the USS Dallas. Clancy was even able to declassify information on the submarines because he was able to get very accurate information from his military acquaintances. Through his descriptions of settings, Clancy is able to engross readers. These readers will continue to come back over and over again because the books are layered with exquisite details that appeal to their curiosity surrounding all things military. Additionally, through his plots, Clancy is able to awaken the instilled fears and hatred towards either outer space attacks or Communist leaders. These fears were instilled into children from the sixties to the present, and these instilled emotions are what make the Clancy novels so memorable. Every child from the sixties remembers the space race and communist scares that swept across the nation. Clancy capitalizes on these events and incorporates them throughout his novels to awaken the reader's subconscious. This allows readers to connect the work to previous times in their lives, once again, making the novels that much more memorable.

An Addition to the Formula

**This is a summarization of Garson's psychoanalytical and reader response criticism. Link in Bibliography.**

What sets Clancy's novels apart from those written in a similar fashion? Well Clancy uses the same old formula, but he adds a new spin to that formula. Garson claims that Clancy appeals to everyone's "deep-seated geopolitical fears." This idea is similar to the other two critics' ideas. Clancy pulls on his readers' heartstrings with their most subconscious fears instilled in them from birth. This idea allows Clancy to give the readers satisfaction when the good guy wins at the end of his novels. This happy ending also makes it very easy for his readers to continue to come back for another one of his novels over and over again. However, this fact is not the only reason that his readers continue to buy and read his novels. Many of his readers have the same exact ambitions that he had when he was younger, or they have some sort of unconscious desire to be in a dangerous situation. They desire to be in a combat situation, spy story, or world ending dilemma. Unfortunately, many of the readers who have these lifelong dreams will never realize them. They would never want to be in a dangerous position like those that the characters experience throughout Clancy's novels. Clancy tries to play to the psychological ambitions of every reader that he has ever had, and he succeeds. People can live their most ambitious dreams through every last one of Clancy's novels. They can face the evil that their subconscious desires, but they are safe in knowing that they are totally safe. They are safe in the fact that there is already a hero there that will be able to save them. They can cross through to the world of fantasy to live their dreams. Then, they can come back to the world of the living with fulfilled dreams, and they can continue to live the rest of their days safe from any sort of harm that could ever befall them. Overall, Clancy crafts his novels with the same old thriller formula, but he manages to tie in a psychological aspect that fulfills some of the most suppressed unconscious desires.

Bibliography

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