eugene Grant of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel

This novel shows the Gant family from the point of judgment of junior Eugene, and this is a very large family headed by the father, a maker of tombstones. The first part of the novel deals with Eugene's childhood to the get along of twelve. The second part is about his years in school, and the third gear about his years in college. Through all this, the Gant family stands as the center of the novel, constituting the world in which Eugene develops and to which he responds most directly.

fine reply to the novel tends to center on the autobiographical aspects on the one hand and the philosophical underpinnings of Wolfe's analysis of society and the response of the writer to that society. A related theme is the meaning and breed of artistic expression. Richard S. Kennedy addresses the work in terms of characterizations, finding specifically that Wolfe has structured his novel with what Kennedy calls "three separate planes of statement" fused into a single narrative. One narrative is the story of Eugene Gant. A second is the family chronicle within which Eugene's story is set. The larger textile is Wolfe's autobiographical interpretation of life, centering on vitalism, emergent evolution, and fanciful evolution (Kennedy 127). Walser also finds that the work is autobiographi

The central and simplest theme of Look Homeward, Angel is the revolt of the one-on-one from the small t own, a theme uppermost in the minds of different writers of the 1920's--Zona Gale, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis, to name a few (Walser 70).

Wolfe's literary intention is discussed by McElderry, who states that Wolfe was not trying to present a literal or "fair" autobiography at all. His intent was rather to

Wolfe delves into his own life through the character of Eugene Gant, allowing him to explore himself and yet do so at some distance.

Hagan, John.

"Structure, Theme, and Metaphor in doubting Thomas Wolfe's 'Look Homeward, Angel.'" American Literature (May 1981), 266-285.

For although Look Homeward, Angel is in some ways a naturalistic novel, its protagonist is an imaginative young man of torrential vitality and idealism for whom a Naturalistic view of life can never be decent (Hagan 269).

A closer look reveals that it abounds in archetypal mediaeval images that appeal to readers subliminally; it shares with other Southern Gothic works the probatory elements of both Southern and Gothic setting (bells, darkness, wind, a decaying mansion, labyrinths, an abyss, and eery music), a quest, imprisonment, a ghost, and themes of isolation and fear of annihilation (Unrue 48).

W.O. Gant is generally the singular, violent, and irrational side of W.O. Wolfe, subject to insane bouts of drinking which upset the household. Eliza is the avaricious side of Julia, forced by a nasty marriage to get what comfort she could by satisfying her greed. Luke is the comic side of Fred, his stuttering unmercifully underlined in every scene (McElderry 60).

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