Miss Lonelyhearts," "Wise Blood," "Light in August."
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1977 The aM d Preacher in Three Modern American Novels: "Miss Lonelyhearts," "Wise Blood," "Light in August.". Rebecca Roxburgh Butler Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Butler, Rebecca Roxburgh, "The aM d Preacher in Three Modern American Novels: "Miss Lonelyhearts," "Wise Blood," "Light in August."." (1977). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3099. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3099 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS Thii material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Paga{s)“. If it was possible to obtain the mining page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that tha photopapher suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at ihe upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor Michigan 48106 USA St John s Road Tyler s Green High Wycombe Buctis Fngland UP 10 BUR 77-28,664 BUTLER, Rebecca Roxburgh, 1943- THE MAD PREACHER IN THREE MODERN AMERICAN NOVELS: MISS LONELYHEARTS, WISE BLOOD, LIGHT IN AUGUST. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1977 Literature, American Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Afbcr Michigan 48106 REBECCA ROXBURGH BUTLER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE MAD PREACHER IN THREE MODERN AMERICAN NOVELS MISS LONELYHEARTS, WISE BLOOD, LIGHT IN AUGUST A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agriculture and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Rebecca Roxburgh Butler B. A., Southeastern Louisiana Coliege, 1965 M. A., Louisiana State University, 1966 Augu st, 197 7 EXAMINATION AND THESIS REPORT Candidate Rebecca Roxburgh B utler Major Held: E n g lis h 1 itle of Thesis: THE MAD PREACHER IN THREE MODERN AMERICAN NOVELS: MISS LONELYHEARTS. WISE BLOOD, LIG H T IN AUGUST A|J|)ioved: ' - w ' v L f / M ajor (’rofessor and■Chairman ^ ^ 1 Ifc'un of ihT^r^iH Lle S*'Ih »>1 KXAM1N INC COMMIT IKE: ' S c: v • s . K , 1 r. .. / 4 <- u* Lt . ^ s /. J r Date of Examination: June TO, 1977 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS So many people shared their experience, enthusiasm and books with me during the writing of these chapters that there is not space to list them a ll. Those to whom I owe an especially happy debt include Michael Dunne, Ava Haymon, Sue Jensen, David Lange, David Madden and Walker Percy. I am grateful to Gerald Becham, Curator of the Flannery O'Connor Collection at Georgia College, Milledgeville, for his generous assist ance with my work there. To Professor Donald E. Stanford for his long-term advice and encouragement; to Professor Panthea Reid Broughton, first for her beautifully balanced book, W111iam Faulkner: The Abstract and the Actual, also for her painstaking reading and acute analysis; to Pro fessor Darwin Shrell for his unfailing receptivity and fruitful suggestions; to Professors Lawrence Sasek and John Wildman for their timely and thoughtful participation; I want to express my lasting appre ciation. Loving recognition goes to my husband, Gary, and my daughter, Allison, who contributed more than they know to this effort. i i CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................................ 11 ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................., - . v INTRODUCTION............................................... vi CHAPTER 1: SPLENDID DISCORDS . 1 I. The critical camps ........ 1 II. Melancholy, static and dynamic ..... 11 CHAPTER 2: TRAPPED IN A METAPHOR................................................................. 24 I. The power of language, psychological and theological . 26 II. The language of fiction ........................................ .... 37 CHAPTER 3: A PRIEST OF OUR TIME..................................................................... 43 I. Losses suffered in the newspaper game. ........... 44 II. Imaginative resources reviewed .............................. 59 III. Defeat confirmed ............................................................70 CHAPTER 4: GRANDSON OF A CIRCUIT RIDER . 79 I . A home lost ........................................ ............................. 81 II. Substitutes tested and rejected ............................................... 88 I I I . Death pursued . 102 CHAPTER 5: SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF CALVIN...................................................... 108 I. The young minister ..... ....................................................... Ill II. The old counselor. ...... ...... 119 I I I . The sources of belief. ..... 137 i i i CHAPTER 6: ARTFUL CONFUSIONS ..................................................... 150 I. Suspending c e rta in ty ........................................................................ 150 II . The meanings of madness and preaching 1n fiction .... 155 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................ 160 VITA................................................................ 166 i v ABSTRACT A review of the critical evaluations of Miss Lonelyhearts, Hazel Motes, and Gail Hightower reveals two opposing camps, one urging a view of the characters as spiritually transcendent, the other documenting their mental derangement. A more integrated view conies into focus when these men are studied as typical melancholics whose preference for symbolic over actual reality Invites a merger of the psychological and the religious elements of their characterizations. This merger of seemingly Incompatible kinds of knowledge is readily traced in the language of each novel, which begins by establishing an either-or dichotomy, then reverses the values of the opposing terms, and ends by uniting them. This union, in keeping with the melancholic assumptions of the mad preacher, is a grotesque one which furthers, Instead of re solving, the ambiguities Inherent 1n the conflict fe lt to exist between the natural and the supernatural. Each man lives in an unsatisfactory present which he attempts to revitalize by way of models from the past - family, rel iglous, aesthetic— which only confirm his defeat. The con fusion of the mad preacher 1s deliberately and carefully maintained, and is not intended to be resolved. INTRODUCTION In the early 1930's, both William Faulkner anrl Nathanael West found the character of the preacher a congenial metaphor for the depiction of the outsider, a figure who claims to, or wants to, see beyond ordinary reality, a figure inviting both sympathetic and ironic reception. Twenty years later Flannery O'Connor, following appreciative readings of Faulkner and West, created her own version of this antagonistic preacher whose insistence on telling what he sees repeatedly serves to alienate him from his comnunity, Miss Lonelyhearts, Hazel Motes and Gail Hightower are characters who embody the conflict between religious ideals and scientific rationalism that has contributed to the widespread sense of cultural disorder, personal disorientation, and the loss of traditional value systems as it has been experienced in twentieth- century America. Their stories dramatize an effort to reconcile old visions with new: each possesses an American Protestant heritage which he attempts to adjust to a world he perceives as lacking spiritual Insight, lacking even a serious interest in "truth."