DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/343W-P542
Defense Date
2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Anthony Mangum
Second Advisor
Marcel Cornis-Pope
Third Advisor
Sachi Shimomura
Abstract
This thesis is an analysis of J.D. Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” from both mythic-archetypal and gender-oriented perspectives. It looks specifically at the way a gender-oriented reading allows one to interpret “Bananafish” as a radical reassessment of Carl Jung’s ideas about the process of individuation, as well as Joseph Campbell’s conception of what he describes as the monomyth in his The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The reader is asked to look at how patriarchal values have greatly limited the development of these characters’ identities over time, and the complex archetypal and mythic implications of this limitation.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
December 2013