LOVE IN WALKER PERCY: A FLIGHT FROM ANCESTRY

The principles of traditional psychiatry demonstrate how
the fathers of all Percy's protagonists are the dominant
forces in shaping their sons' adult love relationships.
Cold and formidable figures, each prevents his son from
developing a sense of confidence and self-esteem. The
heroes, then, still trying to win a parent's approval
after his death, become attached to women of whom their
fathers would have approved. At the same time, each forms
an even stronger bond with a new father figure to replace
the one he never really had. However, as the parents in
The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, and Lancelot all had
weak marriages, those of their offspring are also doomed
to failure. It is only when Will Barrett of The Second
Coming rejects his father's values in retrospect and forms
his own superego that a Percyan hero finally chooses an
appropriate marriage partner and the novel ends happily.