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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Warren, Robert Penn, --1905-1989; Warren, Robert Penn, --1905-1989; Innocence (Theology);

Abstract

Using Mordecai Marcus's ''What Is an Initiation Story?" and R. W. B. Lewis's The American Adam to define the loss of innocence, this study follows the protagonists of three Robert Penn Warren novels-- Wilderness, World Enough and Time, and All the King's Men--through their steps from innocence to knowledge, initiation, or the loss of innocence. A similar pattern is seen in the lives of Adam Rosenzweig, Jeremiah Beaumont, and Jack Burden. Each is well beyond the age normally associated with initiation and has gone through experiences which should have caused the loss of innocence. Each has refused the initiation (at least the specific one demanded by Warren) by seeing the evil in the world, but refusing to see the evil in his own nature. Warren demands from his characters the recognition that everyone shares responsibility for the evil of the world and that innocence is ultimately life destroying. He insists that, no matter how late in life, his characters must go through the initiation. And he emphasizes the point by using protagonists who are well beyond the usual age for initiation. This study concentrates on a unique emphasis in Warren's work. Warren sees each of his characters as attempting to maintain innocence or regain lost innocence as a shield against self-knowledge. A character may believe that since he has had only the noblest intentions, it is the world--not he--which is evil. He may then withdraw from the real world and attempt to create his own ideal world or make a symbolic return to the womb. A character often repudiates his past in an effort to repudiate responsibility for the evil of the past. When the present becomes too painful and self-knowledge seems imminent, a character may find refuge in an immersion in nature or in a flight to the West (symbols of innocence). Finally, when faced with his own humanity, a character may attempt to define himself through the innocence of another person. In the novels studied, Rosenzweig, Beaumont, and Burden use all of these attempted escapes from self-knowledge, but Warren insists that all of these means of maintaining or regaining innocence are delusionary. The conclusion of the thesis suggests that Warren, while certainly not a cheerful optimist, is not the pessimist he has often been painted to be. While Warren sees the "tragic experience" as universal in life, he does not see a world of futile pessimism. He recognizes that man is limited, but he sees hope in man's assumption of moral burdens, in his attempts to do good, and in his willingness to suffer and seek expiation for his sins. Neither is Warren a writer of thinly disguised religious tracts, as he is also accused of being. He insists that his characters accept responsibility for evil. Some of his "successful" characters phrase their understanding in religious terms; some, in secular terms. This is illustrated in a study by examining various characters whom Warren appears to find successful, some of whom accept religion as an answer to the problems of living and some who state their answers (and live by them) in secular terms.

Year of Submission

1975

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of English Language and Literature

First Advisor

Robert J. Ward

Second Advisor

James Albrecht

Third Advisor

Patrick A. Brooks

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1975

Object Description

1 PDF file (170 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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