Mothers and Others- Myths of the Female in the Works of Melville, Twain, and Hemingway

This study applies methodologies developed in myth scholarship to the literary works of three American authors, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Ernest Hemingway, in order to demonstrate the significance of female characterizations and feminine symbolic patterns in these works. By examining the feminine elements present in the writers' adaptations (usually ironic) of the theme of the heroic quest, the investigation also hopes to provide an increased awareness of the long traditions, in our literature as in our mythologies, that have shaped our culture's attitudes toward and about the female.