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LOVE IN WALKER PERCY: A FLIGHT FROM ANCESTRY

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Date Issued:
1984
Summary:
The principles of traditional psychiatry demonstrate how the fathers of all Percy's protagonists are the dominant forces in shaping their sons' adult love relationships. Cold and formidable figures, each prevents his son from developing a sense of confidence and self-esteem. The heroes, then, still trying to win a parent's approval after his death, become attached to women of whom their fathers would have approved. At the same time, each forms an even stronger bond with a new father figure to replace the one he never really had. However, as the parents in The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, and Lancelot all had weak marriages, those of their offspring are also doomed to failure. It is only when Will Barrett of The Second Coming rejects his father's values in retrospect and forms his own superego that a Percyan hero finally chooses an appropriate marriage partner and the novel ends happily.
Title: LOVE IN WALKER PERCY: A FLIGHT FROM ANCESTRY.
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Name(s): LADOFF, AUDREY LOIS.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Peyton, Ann, Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1984
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 176 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: The principles of traditional psychiatry demonstrate how the fathers of all Percy's protagonists are the dominant forces in shaping their sons' adult love relationships. Cold and formidable figures, each prevents his son from developing a sense of confidence and self-esteem. The heroes, then, still trying to win a parent's approval after his death, become attached to women of whom their fathers would have approved. At the same time, each forms an even stronger bond with a new father figure to replace the one he never really had. However, as the parents in The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, and Lancelot all had weak marriages, those of their offspring are also doomed to failure. It is only when Will Barrett of The Second Coming rejects his father's values in retrospect and forms his own superego that a Percyan hero finally chooses an appropriate marriage partner and the novel ends happily.
Identifier: 14210 (digitool), FADT14210 (IID), fau:11021 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1984.
Subject(s): Percy, Walker,--1916-1990--Criticism and interpretation
Percy, Walker,--1916---Criticism and interpretation
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14210
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.