The Last Gentleman By Walker P
In addition to finding meaning and purpose to his life, Will Barrett in Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman must attribute some meaning to his father's suicide in order to resolve his ongoing grief. Suicide survivors experience dramatic shock and trauma as explained in a compendium of articles in Living With Grief After Sudden Loss. Judith M. Stillion, a contributing suicidology expert, states that "those grieving loss by suicide often are left with questions such as why their loved one killed themselves, and what, if anything, might have been done to prevent the suicide" (50). Questions like these are generally unanswerable, and thus they may prolong the process of grieving and condemn ...
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may be the least forgivable sin of all human betrayals; Ed Barrett arrogantly and selfishly committed suicide, leaving himself dead and unanswerable to his son. As John M. Schwartz states, what finally provoked Mr. Barrett to suicide was, "His dance of honor collapsed amidst its moral ambiguities. At the last, he was a moralist, but his world completely failed to stand at the moral attention he demanded" (117). What he wanted was for all gentlemen to accept the burden of noblesse oblige, and for there to be a distinction between a gentleman and others (Schwartz 117). Walker Percy's Ed Barrett states on the night of the suicide,"They've won" (Percy 330). The fornicators, bribers, takers of bribes, the hypocrites–all the enemies of lawyer Ed Barrett, refused to fight against him. They refused to fight him because they were no longer seen as bribers and fornicators, but as everyone else (Schwartz 118). The elder Barrett fails to connect meaningfully with anyone in his ...
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his father killed himself, unable to come to the hurtful conclusion that his father betrayed him. As John Edward Hardy writes, Will's statement "Wait. Don't leave" (Percy 331) is his final plea to his father, but Ed Barrett still defies his son's "direct and loving appeal for him to stay" (Hardy 87). The strongest appeal Will could make to his father, "out of his simple love and need," was refused by his father, leaving Will feeling worthless and damaging his self-esteem (Hardy 87). Like many suicide survivors, Will feels responsible for his father's death, although he never quite consciously contemplates it (Stillion 43-44). As J. G. Kennedy writes, not knowing his father's suicidal ...
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"The Last Gentleman By Walker P." Essayworld.com. June 2, 2005. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Last-Gentleman-By-Walker-P/27876.
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