Men in literature

In an ever-changing society beset by technological growth, Kurt Vonnegut has found dissatisfaction with traditional masculine behavioral patterns that perpetuate masculine aggression. Vonnegut abandons gender-specific roles to propose alternative methods of behavior through his creation of passive protagonists. These passive protagonists have a nurturing element and an ability to share their essence with others. This feminine nurturing element is seen by Vonnegut as a critical element essential for humanity's evolution and salvation. The passive protagonists examined are Eliot Rosewater in God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five, and Rabo Karabekian in Bluebeard.

Despite well documented evidence that Jane Austen's relations with her father were harmonious and affectionate, only one of the twenty-one fathers and surrogate fathers depicted in her six major novels approaches the ideal of the patriarchal family--a wise and humane father. The preponderance of fallible fathers is a unifying metaphor for a disintegrating family structure, the inevitable legacy of a failed patrimony. The phallocentric heritage has rendered the lineal society anachronistic by fostering paternal irresponsibility due to unfettered privilege, by permitting the poorly prepared, succeeding generation of inheritors to govern, and by reducing the status of women to submission and dependency.