REALIZATION OF SELF THROUGH SUFFERING: A STUDY OF WALKER PERCY’S THE LAST GENTLEMAN

Abstract

This paper explores the realization of the self through death in the light of Walker
Percy’s The Last Gentleman. Will Barrett, the protagonist of the novel, is constantly haunted
by the past incident in the life of his father who attempted to kill him and then committed
suicide. He feels guilty for not being faithful to his father in fulfilling his wish. As his father
did, he also tries to be the last gentleman of the Barrett family by sticking to the old ideals
and traditions of the family. But by living in the present he finds it very difficult to be faithful
to the past. As a matter of fact he appears as a man neither of the past nor of the present--a
noman nowhere. Will is so much absorbed by the past that whatever he sees, hears, or smells
becomes the symbol of the past. His suffering due to his obsession with the past is so severe
that an idea to shoot himself, as his father did, enters his mind. Will, throughout the novel, is
haunted by the death dealing incident in his own life and in the life of his father. He suffers to
be the last gentleman of the Barrett family. In spite of his failed attempt to commit suicide he
chooses to many Kitty for she also loves him at the end of The Last Gentelman.