Search For The Meaning Of Life Essay

, Research Paper

Search for the Meaning of Life

Will Barrett is the main character in Walker Percy s The Last Gentleman. In addition to finding meaning and purpose to his life, Will must try to make some sense and understand why his father committed suicide in order to resolve his ongoing grief. Suicide survivors experience dramatic shock and trauma and are often left with questions such as why their loved one killed themselves, and what could have been done to prevent the suicide. Unfortunately, the survivors usually cannot find answers to these questions and only end up harming themselves. They end up staying in the shadow of that tragedy for more than one person should. At the tender age of nineteen, Will not only has the usual identity search of a young man, but he also has a special and time-consuming burden to overcome the heightened feelings of guilt, shame, and rejection caused by his father s suicide. In the end, Jamie and Sutter Vaught, as adopted family, help Will find meaning in life and resolution with his father s suicide.

Suicide may be the least forgivable sin of all human betrayals; Ed Barrett selfishly committed suicide, leaving himself dead and unable to answer his son s questions. The straw that broke the camels back for Mr. Barrett was when his honor collapsed amidst its moral ambiguities. In the end he was a man of morals but his world had completely failed to stand at the moral attention he demanded. What he wanted was for all gentlemen to accept the burden of being noble and honest people and for there to be a distinction between a gentleman and others. Walker Percy s Ed Barrett states on the night of the suicide, They ve won (Percy 330). The fornicators, bribers, the hypocrites, they were all the enemies of Mr. Ed Barrett but they refused to fight him. They refused to fight him because they were no longer seen as bribers and fornicators, but as just another person. Ed Barrett fails to connect meaningfully with anyone in his life and that also means Will. Ed tells his son moments before he kills himself, In the last analysis, you are alone (Percy 331). Whatever the source of this despair leading to suicide, Will’s father has failed to grasp the most important purpose of life; one does not have to save the world or right all the wrongs, but he just has to touch the lives of a few people.

The intentional, sudden, and violent nature of Ed Barrett s death left Will feeling abandoned, helpless, and rejected. Will Barrett is so hurt and confused he does not consciously define his father s suicide as a personal betrayal, but instead he wants to give his father the benefit of any possible doubt. Will bottles his feeling of betrayal inside himself by blaming the suicide on the time and place his father lived in. Will Barrett says, I think he was wrong…No, not he but the times. The times were wrong and one looked in the wrong place (Percy 332). Here Will is making excuses for why his father killed himself, unable to come to the hurtful conclusion that his father betrayed him. The strongest appeal Will could make to his father, out of his longing for his father to love him and accept him, was rejected by his father. Will was left feeling worthless and his self-esteem had taken a turn for the worse. Although he had no knowledge of his father’s intentions, Will suffers from a profound sense of guilt at not stopping his father s suicide. Ed Barrett replies to Will’s plead to wait with the lie, I m not leaving, son (Percy 331). Will s grudge with his father is that he died by his own hand, robbing Will of himself and causing him to search for a substitute father to guide him along that path that his life will take him.

Will Barrett looks to Sutter Vaught as his surrogate father. He feels that Sutter Vaught is privy to the secret of life and knows things he doesn t know. Will states that I have reason to believe you can help me (Percy 218). He is attracted to Sutter s perception and honesty, and Will tells Sutter he will believe anything he tells him. For instance, as an experiment to test this hypothesis with Will, Sutter rubs Will s eye with a handkerchief and tells him he won t feel anything, even though Will should cringe with pain. The handkerchief hits Will’s eye and he does nothing, and Sutter realizes that whatever he tells Will, he will believe no matter what. Sutter states, I told you you would not feel the handkerchief, so you didn t (Percy 222). Will’s blind obedience and adoration eventually changes as he begins to scrutinize and evaluate Sutter Vaught.

Attracting Will’s attention, he soon begins to discern both the similarities and differences between Sutter and his father, Ed Barrett. Both Sutter and Ed Barrett had authoritative positions and both have suicidal dispositions. However, unlike Will’s father, Sutter is willing to talk about suicide. Ed Barrett’s lack of communication results in despair and death, whereas with Sutter talking to Will allows for growth, understanding, and connection. In the end this becomes especially apparent with the deathbed scene and its aftermath.

When Will later meets up with Jamie and Sutter in Santa Fe, he engineers Jamie’s baptism before his death. Jamie Vaught’s deathbed scene brings Will and Sutter together allowing them both to matter in the life of Jamie. Together they share in this very spiritual experience of Jamie’s death and possible salvation. Will had been h