Honors Theses
Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Martyn Bone
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how Walker Percy, through fiction, explores the various inadequacies of place, ontology, and religious belief through his representation of his characters* engagement with these three areas in their attempt to live a meaningful life. 1 analyze three of Percy's novels. The Moviegoer (1961), The Last Gentleman (1966). and The Second Cowmg (1980), as well as Percy's non-fiction essays and Percy criticism. I find that the novels are continuous with Percy's non-fiction, and that Percy critics too often simply restate the author's beliefs instead of undergoing a thorough examination of what the author does not believe, and the w^ay he portrays that throughout his fiction. Ultimately, I conclude that one can only understand Percy's fiction in light of the dualities he presents and the ultimate “inadequacy and irreconcilability'* of such extremes—^that the Percy protagonist must, then, look to something beyond such continuums, and not in-between them, in order to reconcile the existential desire to live in the world and not of the world.
Recommended Citation
Griesbeck, Matthew Jordan, "Anything New Under the Sun?: Walker Percy and the Search for a Third Way and Place" (2012). Honors Theses. 2336.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2336
Accessibility Status
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