The non- violent and violent mimetic desires of street orphan characters in Anglo -American and Luso -Brazilian literatures

Jose Newton de Seixas Pereira Filho, Purdue University

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to look at how selected Anglo-American and Luso-Brazilian authors use fictions of non-violence and violence to create myths of “ambition and success” and “struggle and failure” in the world of street orphans. In Anglo-American novels such as Charles Dickens' The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks, Theresa Nelson's Beggar's Ride, and Sherman Alexie's Flight, the main characters Oliver Twist, Ragged Dick, Clare Caldwell, and Zits have different desires, leading them to respond positively to the outcast.1 They are the cases who are mostly looking for life with happy endings. The authors make-believe that these children can strive and succeed by themselves, and so they are rewarded by society because they fit in by non-violent acts (i.e., the citizenship models). Their desires for situations such as family, work, love, and ethnicity are optimistic in terms of constructing self-identities. 1See Charles Dickens, The Adventures of Oliver Twist (New York: Heritage Press, 1939 – first published 1838). Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick, or, Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks (Philadelphia: Polyglot Press, 2005 – first published 1868). Theresa Nelson, The Beggar's Ride (New York: Orchard Books, 1992), Sherman Alexie, Flight (New York: Black Cat, 2007).

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Ross, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Comparative literature|Latin American literature|American literature|British and Irish literature

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