A Comparison of the Male Persona in Western Literature

Abstract

The essay follows a selection of Western Literature including Homer's Odyssey, Marquez' s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Kundera' s The Unbelievable Lightness of Being, selected poetry by Walt Whitman and Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to examine the male persona as portrayed in different genres beginning as long ago as the writings of Homer and as recently as Tennessee Williams. While all have some similarities, there is a move toward recognizing the validity of a changing male persona in today's society. While there remains a definite perception of maleness, there is an apparent fluidity in the expectations and realities of being male.