The Progress of the Protagonist from Alienation to Resistance. A Study of Selected Post-war II American Narratives of: Saul Bellow, Thomas Pynchon, and William Styron

Abstract

The present thesis aims to examine the protagonists struggle with the different forms of alienation and the modes of resistance they employ so as to overcome its effects. The progress of the protagonists from alienation to resistance is studied in six fictional narratives drawn from Post-War II American literature where two novels by three crucial voices of American postmodern fiction writers namely: Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King (1959), and Herzog (1964), Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1965), and Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), and William Styron’s, Set this House on Fire (1960), and The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), are the focal point of this thesis. Thus, the study attempts to provide a detailed discussion and analysis of the way the protagonists in the selected texts do not accept to be enslaved by the imposed alienation but progress and transcend to reach resistance. The method used is both descriptive and analytical. This research also hinges upon reading the selected narratives in the light of Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus as well as viewing them from existentialist and postmodernist perspectives. The findings reveal that the protagonists in the selected novels progress from mere alienated individuals, to emerge as resistant and triumphant figures. It also confirms the three authors’ optimistic outlook holding the view that in spite of the filth, debris, and corruption that characterized the American society, the protagonists manage to overcome their different sorts of alienation and succeed in maintaining their dignity and humanism.