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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Thomas, Dylan, --1914-1953; Thomas, Dylan, --1914-1953; Men in literature; Maturation (Psychology); Men in literature;

Abstract

Dylan Thomas wrote numerous short stories which reveal a completely different aspect of his writing and thinking from that of the highly symbolic, often existential nature of his poetry. He was able, in his short stories, to recall and tell the many-faceted feelings of a boy as he grows from early childhood into young adulthood. Along with the pleasures and hurts experienced, the mischief involved in, and the mistakes made in the process of maturing, Dylan Thomas reveals an underlying humorous, irreverent quality and attitude which seems to imply that the one who does not take himself too seriously can be the one to survive. The stories, which mirror a boy's maturing, start with a boy who is only three or four and in a position of comparative social isolation. They continue to show the young boy as his circle of acquaintances widens, along with the widening of the range of problems and confusions. The young boy whose life is a series of explorations and physical activity, the boy who is learning to get along with his peers, the boy who is aware of girls, and the young man who longs for independence and conquests are all in his stories. Part of maturing is based on relationships with adults, and Dylan Thomas has not neglected to include them in his stories. Women and girls are treated as uninteresting, usually colorless, often self-centered, vain, unimaginative people. Some of them emerge as almost witch-like characters. Men are treated in a more kindly fashion. Their weaknesses seldom connote smallness or drabness. Even the strange village characters in the stories are shown in a sympathetic light. The older men relatives are pictured with warmth and affection. In this group of stories, Dylan Thomas seems to have fulfilled a personal need to reject the obscurity, symbolism, and experimental techniques which are sometimes found in his poetry and to record the growing up process of a boy as he, Thomas, saw it. He once said to Vernon Watkins that the terrible bombings of London in World War II created in him a hurt and a necessity to reveal the truth about growing up. Because of this need of Thomas's, we, his readers, can learn and understand more of the feelings and problems of a young man on the painful, glorious, and even humorous road to maturity.

Year of Submission

1973

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of English Language and Literature

First Advisor

John Cowley

Second Advisor

Howard Vander Beek

Third Advisor

Daniel J. Cahill

Comments

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Date Original

1973

Object Description

1 PDF file (90 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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