Date of Completion

2017

Thesis Type

College of Arts and Science Honors

Department

English

First Advisor

Huck Gutman

Keywords

bible, modernism, Faulkner, archetype, Warren

Abstract

Archetypes are simplified characters that serve as a template for the complex characters featured in intricate narratives. I intend to investigate the use of the biblical archetype of the Prodigal Son in the modern period of literature. To do so, I plan to research William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men (1946). My thesis will explain how the characters in these novels follow, diverge, and alternate around, the arc of the Prodigal Son. In so doing, I will demonstrate the Prodigal Son to be the archetype from which the modern character develops.

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