Honors Theses
Date of Award
2013
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Tom Franklin
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The main character of The Refitge of Fools, Mar>’ Canon Israel, resembles H.L. Mencken's iconoclast. Mencken v\Tites that an iconoclast uses an instinct that supersedes the logic of religion, a logic he calls "the refuge of fools." Known as M.C., Mar\- Canon attends a private Christian high school in the South. Instinct acute, however, she regards the "God concept" with extreme suspicion. The Refuge of Fools visits her junior year of high school, each chapter taken from a month of that year. Her lifelong friend Palmer wants to change the nature of their friendship but cannot decide whether to date M.C. or convert her. M.C's lab partner Becca ropes her into attending a weekly fellowship group. The faith that surrounds M.C. perpetually throws her un-faith into relief. She reacts with both brazenness and diffidence: when accused of being a Communist, she dresses as Che Guevara, but when her Religion teacher addresses M.C.'s disbelief, she evades the question. It is death, though, that intrudes on her life and tugs at the threads of her worldview. The storv is not simply a visitation; M.C. herself narrates. Now a mother and wife, she remembers her seventeen-\'ear-old self with wry wisdom and compassion. She sees what the young M.C. does not or cannot see —that faith triumphs ov^er selfishness, doubt, and death. In the end, she realizes her ignorance and turns a new face to the refuge of fools.
Recommended Citation
Girardeau, Merrill Lee, "The Refuge of Fools" (2013). Honors Theses. 2332.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2332
Accessibility Status
Searchable text