"Chunky": An Exploration Of Scarring And Social Wounds

Abstract

This thesis presents the first fourteen chapters of the author's novel, "Chunky," and examines it in comparison to Martha Southgate's Fall of Rome (2002). Both novels explore the journey of young black males who are trying to survive in a world where they are different. Southgate's Rashid Bryson leaves behind his parents when he gets a scholarship to attend an elite boys' boarding school, where most of his classmates are white and wealthy. DeShaun ‘Chunky’ Gaynor stifles his academic ambition to be accepted into an older crowd and win a girl's affection. Both Rashid and Chunky suffer from scars that prevent them from reaching their full potential. The introduction will explore these characters, the writers' approaches to black masculinity, and contemporary concepts regarding black male identity and healing. The wounded characters in "Chunky" seek solace in each other, in Fall of Rome, the characters are repelled by one another's scars.