Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• JOHSTONEAUX, RAPHAEL BURTON

Titel

ABANDONMENT IN THE MAJOR WORKS OF CARSON MCCULLERS

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1980

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This study is a consideration of the theme of abandonment in the prose fiction of Carson McCullers. This recurring theme exists in her novels (The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Member of the Wedding, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Clock Without Hands), her play (The Square Root of Wonderful), and selected short stories. The theme is focused in various ways, yet lucidly depicts the lives of those who abandon and are abandoned. The major purpose of the dissertation is to show that from an exploration of this theme evolves not only a keener understanding of her other themes--spiritual isolation, search for identity, love--but also an insight into one of her more significant messages to mankind: to abandon or isolate one's self from another is often physically damaging and assuredly emotionally crippling. The structural pattern of the dissertation is essentially chronological, beginning with her first novel and following through to her last. The only exception to this pattern is the short stories which are considered in one chapter at the end. The chapters deal with the major characters in each work, while at the same time weaving into the analysis the other characters as they act or are acted upon by the figure under discussion. In this analysis, the critics are cited where applicable, but the major support for the thesis is the work itself. The study, therefore, brings together the pertinent scholarship on McCullers' themes of love and spiritual isolation and expands these themes to include abandonment. The analysis of the theme of abandonment demonstrates how some characters react by lashing out in violence, others react in resignation, and still others emotionally capitulate. In each instance, had there been sensitivity, kindness, concern--the agony of abandonment might have been alleviated and the characters might have loved, might have reached a rewarding sense of fulfillment instead of the loneliness and spiritual isolation they suffer.