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University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company I 73-11,564 ROBERTS, William Howell, 1940- AN EXAMINATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN NOVEL AS A MEANS OF ASSISTING STUDENTS IN MEETING THE DEMANDS OF A CHANGING SOCIETY. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1972 Education, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. AN EXAMINATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN NOVEL AS A MEANS OF ASSISTING STUDENTS IN MEETING THE DEMANDS OF A CHANGING SOCIETY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of 'tjhe Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By William Howell Roberts, B.A,, B.Sc., M.A The Ohio State University 1972 Approved by Advisor Department of Humanities Education PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply Indebted to Dr. Frank Zidonis and Dr. Wilfred Eberhart of The Ohio State University who carefully read the manuscript# and who willingly gave needed advice that prompted me to iaake many important revisions. I thank the students of Lowell State College who frequently taught me while I was trying to teach them. The many student teachers with whom I worked who willingly used some of my ideas in their classes proved to be a source that frequently reminded me of the real problems of the adolescent reader. I have thanked my wife, Patsy, many times for reading and helping me with my manuscript. I can not thank her enough for her continuous encouragement and her tolerance of my shifting moods. Without the help of my parents I never would have been in the position to begin the manuscript. It is my deepest regret that my mother is not alive to see my manuscript, which is so much hers and to whom I have dedicated my efforts. ii t VITA July 6, 1940• Born - Cleveland, Ohio 1 963 * • • • ® B.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1964a « e • 0 B.Sc., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1 9 6 4 - 1 9 6 7 e . Teacher of English, Groveport-Madison High School, Groveport, Ohio 1967• • • • • M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1967-1969 • • Instructor, Department of English, Urbana College, Urbana, Ohio 1969-1971 • • Teaching Associate, Department of Humanities Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1971........ Instructor, English, Director, English-Education, Lowell State College, Lowell',* Massachusetts FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field1 English Education Dr. Frank Zidonis Minor Fields Nineteenth Century British Literature Dr. Richard Martin Minor Fields Curriculum Development Dr. Paul Klohr iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page AC KNO WLEDGEMENTS............................. i i VITA, , . ...................... ill INTRODUCTION 0 1 CHAPTER I, NEED FOR ARGUMENT. 5 Organizational Plan II. UNDERDOG VICTIM OF SOCIAL REGIMENTATION. ................... 31 Problems of selection III. ADOLESCENT PROTAGONIST ............ 63 Nature of adolescent reader IV. MINORITY PROTAGONIST .............. 103 Values of Examining Minority Experience V. RELATED MATERIALS.................... 1^0 Film Music Poetry VI. SUMMARY* .........oaeoe 177 BIBLIOGRAPHYa aaa^eaaeaaaaaae 183 iv INTRODUCTION To every man his chance, regardless of his birth« his shining golden oppor tunity— to every man to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can make him.1 One of the major points that Postman and Weingartner emphasize in their Teaching as a Subversive Activity is that it is not so important to dwell on what our students learn. Rather, we should concentrate on how to learn or, better yet, how to live. They suggest that the student who has learned how to ask meaningful questions has not only secured for himself the key for successful and independent learning, but he has acquired a tool that will help him live a life as an individual with a clearly defined sense of identity. I submit that I subscribe wholeheartedly to this philosophical assumption about learning and living. It is my intent to provide specific suggestions by which such a philosophical assumption can be effected in the secondary English class. We live in a very complex age. An age which tends to emphasize organization and bureaucracy and deemphasize the individual. Since its inception as a nation, America has t---------------- Ronald Gross and Paul Osterman, ed., Individualismi Man in Modern Society (New Yorki Dell Publishing Company, 1971)» p. xxix. 2 prided itself on the ideal of rugged individualism. Historically the values that have been directly corre lated with individualism are competition and hard work. The individuals have stood up and they have been counted. They have settled the West and they have provided us with a society of material abundance. Today the typical American is bewildered because these ideals of competition and hard work have been carried to the extreme. They have created for us a society of bureaucratic and technocratic expertise- a society that tends to place little value on the individual. This is clearly a very dangerous trend. No longer can the individual express his individuality without being classified as an eccentric, an anarchist, or, at best, a member of a counter-culture. I believe that it goes without saying that an individual who lives a life controlled by external forces is living a life that is unfulfilled. 1 contend that the American school is a place where we can begin to realize our value system so that the concept of individualism may once again be synonymous with "The American Dream". I am particularly concerned with the secondary English teacher. The secondary English classroom roust be democratic and student-centered. We must listen more and talk less. Very soon our students will be entering a complex and oppressive adult society. I believe that it is our task to prepare the student to enter this world equipped with the tools that will help him define himself in the face of such 3 overwhelming odds. To begin with, w® must, by our class room atmosphere, let the student discover what it really means to be an individual. We must also, for the reasons cited above, present our students with appropriate materials that show the individual fighting to maintain his individuality. Much contemporary fiction, film and music adheres to this very theme. This is the material our students should be discovering, examining and questioning. We must present the Student with a wide range of protagonists who are fighting for their individuality. Somewhere our students will relate these struggles to their own lives. It seems only logical that if our students are exposed to such materials in an atmosphere where individualism prevails, we may very well develop in the student a wider and deeper frame of reference which he needs to appraise himself and his society. I am not suggesting that we foster a rebellious counter-culture, nor am I suggesting that we foster a culture that completely submits itself to the overwhelming forces of modern society. Rather, it is my contention that somewhere between these two extreme our students will discover alternative means of coping with the complexities of modern society. And, perhaps, some of our students may enter the adult world with some sense of how they can maintain a sense of identity and, at the same time, function 4 in a society that is becoming increasingly more oppressive* < CHAPTER I Today's legislators, educators, sociologists, anthropologists and theologians must be hearing the plain tive voices of American youth singing "I want to be me." Have we closed our ears to this seemingly simple request? Clearly the request is not simple. And, indeed, to the youth of our country it must seem to be an "impossible dream." It is unfortunate that an advanced society that pays so much attention to the needs of its members and gives them so much at the same time deprives them of the most important of all human needs— a clear vision of one's own identity.