Uncertain men: Faulkner, Steinbeck and modern masculinities

My project focuses on William Faulkner and John Steinbeck and how they address the dilemma of men encountering an insensitive form of masculinity proliferating in American culture in the twentieth-century. Despite exhibiting highly virile behavior in their personal lives, they were, nonetheless capable of producing male characters whose individual conflicts with this model underscored the debilitating nature of a code of manhood that encouraged brutality, sexual aggression, and stoicism.The introduction presents a historical look at how the nineteenth-century model of manliness, which acknowledged base and primitive traits in men but promoted manly restraint, was transformed into a twentieth-century mode that glorified what it saw as the inherent animalistic qualities of men. It examines how the rise of corporate capitalism and the glorification of the Civil War prompted middle-class men to reformulate their definition of manhood.The first chapter provides background for chapter two which explores the authors' personal lives, concentrating on their worries about their own virility. I reveal their familial relationships along with the overtly masculine personas they presented to their public, including the critics who often sought to establish the authors as aggressively virile as a prerequisite for recognizing their works as powerful fiction.The third chapter studies the ways in which William Faulkner's work critiqued modern masculinity. I argue that he uses his male characters to illustrate the self-destructive behavior produced by this form of masculinity, and I support my claim with an extensive analysis of Faulkner's exceptional novel Light In August.Chapter four focuses on Steinbeck whose masterful novel, The Grapes of Wrath, exposes the toxic nature of such a romanticized version of manhood. His moving depiction of the Joad family demonstrates how many men are defeated by its brutal nature.My conclusion discusses why it is important for feminists like me to examine the problems faced by today's men in order to find a solution to the gender conflicts that divide us. It also expresses the hope that the project will prompt others to continue and expand on my analysis in order to enlarge the scope and goals of feminist thought.