Dissertation

Thesis:  The landscape of American Literature has scattered and recurrent memes.  The one I will focus on is the development of the male protagonist from “boy” into “Man.”  This transformation is almost exclusive set as a physical journey, most often taking the protagonist to the West away from “sivilization” into the wilderness.  This journey ends in the protagonist helping to build a civilization he is then not able or not willing to live in.  He will flee domesticity.