The Study of Death Figure in Thomas Wolfe’s Novella Death, The Proud Brother

The American novelist, Thomas Clayton Wolfe ( - ), is well known for his poetic impressionistic and autobiographical fictional writings. He wrote four long novels, several novellas, and two collections of short stories. He used a poem-prose style of writing in his works generally. In the middle of the previous century, many critics observed his literary significance. Wolfe was studied from a different points of view. His poetic language, his vivid characterization, his themes and settings, the perception of his philosophical ideas, and the psychological aspects of his writings, they all have great academic attention since that time. In the present study, death figure is studied as the central character and leitmotif image that integrates the novellas’ episodes. In each episode, death figure’s presentation is discussed. The way by which death is occurred, the victims’ presentation and description, and people’s reactions towards death are recorded. By using all these aspects, Wolfe successes to portray and personify death figure in accordance with his personal experiences and perception of death. The main concern of this research is to study Wolfe‘s portrayal of death figure throughout the four episodes of the novella.