Publication Date
Summer 2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Christopher White
Second Advisor
Dr. Liam Lanigan
Third Advisor
Dr. Bradley Smith
Abstract
Violence is ubiquitous in American Fiction, especially in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, “Good Country People”, and “The Displaced Person” Flannery O’Connor highlights the choices people make within that violence can directly affect the results of that violence. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, through the character of Billy Pilgrim, extends choices around violence even further, suggesting that inaction is sometimes the best plan. Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men highlights how a combination of action and inaction, depending on the situation, can help or hurt someone when violence surrounds them.
Recommended Citation
Farrell, Lisa, "Violence & Volition: Choice, Acceptance, and Identity in Selected Works by Flannery O'Connor, Kurt Vonnegut, and Cormac McCarthy" (2024). All Student Theses and Dissertations. 159.
https://opus.govst.edu/theses/159
