the southern anti-hero.pdf

Melissa Tyndall Dr. Barnes Southern Fiction Spring 2004

The Southern Anti-Hero One characteristic of modern literature is the use of the anti-hero in The Last Gentleman

and The Time of Bitter Children. While the characters of these literary works weak, malign,

isolated, and affected, these stories also depict the problems of the anti-hero in a southern setting.

While Will Barrett’s anti-heroic status and “southern gentleman” qualities are the basis for his

displacement, Battling Bill in a southern setting, leaving Lee Southgate in a position which he

has to play the southern gentleman. It is apparent that the qualities of an anti-hero are intrinsic,

yet setting also plays a major role in the isolation of a character from society.

Modern literature often depicts a protagonist of the piece as weak, isolated, and affected

both internally and externally. Barrett’s name also furthers this idea (considering it sounds like

“will bare/bear it” and Will both exposes himself as well as struggles to survive in his present

predicament). The concept of the “southern gentleman” plays into this portrayal of the anti-hero.

A “gentleman” is generally thought to be a (southern) man or concept which surrounds a man of

gentle birth, has proper manners, is educated, and generally owns property or has acquired

wealth through business and inheritance. This is a tool of irony employed by Walker Percy to

further the idea that Barrett is not a gentleman or a “Lance Corporal”. In addition, the title of the

book is ironic, for a gentleman generally is thought of as a man who has established himself as a

popular citizen rather than an outsider.

Percy constantly illustrates Barrett’s displacement as well as his psychological state from

the first page of the story. Barrett is an observer, a young man on the outskirts of the world who

makes his original observations and interactions with a telescope. This exemplifies the lack of


confidence usually apparent in an anti-hero. Even the jacket which Will Barrett lays his head

upon had its “outmost lining” showing and was

“wedged into a seam of rock” (3). This in itself represents the modern idea that the “hero”,

Barrett, is stuck within his current situation and has his innermost working exposed to both the

reader and the other characters within the story. Also, Will Barrett’s characteristics as a modern

protagonist are embodied by his thoughts about the university. He felt it strange “that school had

nothing whatever to do with his life…the elegance and order of school disarmed him for what

came later” (201). Rather than viewing his education as a furthering of his intellect and/or

character, Will Barrett feels like as if a foreigner, one neglected and estranged from his fellow

students at the university. It seems that though Will Barrett is an outsider due to his quirky

personality traits, his southern environment also plays a role in his separation from others.

Time of Bitter Children implements southern characteristics (mainly through a modern

day Tennessee). Considering the anti-hero is a protagonist or character that does not exhibit the

qualities of the traditional hero, it is apparent that Battling Bill Thibault is the archetype of the

modern anti-hero in Time of Bitter Children. While Will Barrett’s role as an anti-hero is

personified by his psychology and his relationships with those around him, Battling Bill’s anti-

heroic qualities surround his grotesque appearance as well as his interactions with Lee Southgate.

Bill’s first appearance in the story depicts him with a “sharp rodent’s face” as well as a “sly and

dangerous” demeanor, differentiating the little man from the clichéd image of the beautiful hero

(197). The concept of the anti-hero being aesthetically displeasing continues as Bill is compared

to an animal “who had backed himself up against the cab door” and “the man twitched and

winced away from the arm” as if a creature which feared human contact (198).


What also likens Battling Bill to the archetype of an anti-hero is his own awareness that

he is isolated and out of touch with other human beings. When he is left alone at the roadside to

wait for Lee Southgate, Bill is described as sparrow-like when he “hopped lightly over a

yawning ditch” and his “companions”, the mountains, “loomed like huge, crouching beasts

around him” (199-200). The mountains personify him as both beast-like and alone in his

environment. In addition, Bill refers to himself as a “scarecrow” who “foxed that fool” out of his

cigarettes (200). Battling Bill is perfectly aware of his malign and disconnected relationship

with others—another feature of the lonely and affected southern anti-hero.

The text also reveals that the fighter was a “has been” and has since withered away and

has since become obsolete. Lee Southgate works as a foil to Battling Bill, differing from him in

personality and lifestyle, in addition to the fact that he originally stopped for the elder man with

the intention of being a Good Samaritan. Lee Southgate’s initial impression of the old, small

man places Battling Bill as an outsider, for Lee wishes he would have kept driving rather than

picked Bill up. Lee Southgate assumed Bill “might just have a knife in that pocket…a crazy,

twisted, little old man like that might do most anything” (201).

The rough physical appearance and the odd social interaction Lee Southgate has with Bill

(coupled by the idea that the older man is psychologically unbalanced) indicates

that the former fighter is in some way doomed. Southgate’s attempt at maintaining a

conversation with his passenger failed due to the passenger’s short answers and “crinkled

expression of suspicion, curiosity, outrage, and incredulity” (202). It seemed impossible for

them men to even listen to the radio “together”, as Southgate still contemplated the idea that the

ex-fighter toted, “some kind of a little zip gin. Or maybe an old-fashioned set of brass knuckles.


Most likely a knife though, one with an edge like a straight razor” (202). Battling Bill has few

redeeming qualities and his afflicted nature is manifested outwardly with the hand which was

“red as a cooked lobster and the skin stretched taut terribly infected” and seemed “a separate

thing, maybe a small sick animal, no part of him” (206). By the end of the short story, Lee

Southgate was mortified at his actions, yet it is quite apparent that Southgate still viewed Bill

Thibault as animal-like in nature with his “rat-face” and the way he snatches Southgate’s wad of

money.

The blend of anti-heroic elements is pervasive in both the characters of Will Barrett and

Battling Bill Thibault. Barrett does not fit into the northern city life, and seems a “throw back”

of what would be considered a southern gentle society. Barrett does not interact with people, but

examines relationships from a distance. Similarly, Bill is a southern outcast, both by his bristly

mannerisms and his appearance. Battling Bill’s lack of human qualities make him an anti-hero

which truckers wish leave at the side of the road, though Lee Southgate attempts to be civil with

him. These characters have few redeeming, yet as modern readers, we are accepting of characters

who are weak and socially isolated. However, beyond the qualities of an anti-hero, setting is still

pertinent in examining the nature of that particular character—things may have been very

different if these stories had taken place in a northern setting.

the southern anti-hero.pdf

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