Fathers of Literary Importance
By William Shelton • June 07, 2022
As Father's Day approaches, we all pause to contemplate the role a father played in our lives, whether robust or fleeting. We turn over in our minds the characteristics of the man we call "Dad." Through this process we begin to draw parallels between our own father and those of others whom we have known, weighing them in the scales in which every person eventually comes to measure their parents. It is only natural that the next logical step is to compare our father with those we see on screen, or read about in books, and more often than not the human man we know, or knew, falls short against the sterling qualities of the father in fiction. This is not always the case, however. Many fictional fathers were drawn from the lived experience, and living role model, of the authors who created them. Atticus Finch must get awfully lonely and wind swept, high upon the literary pedestal on which he has been placed for the past sixty years, for when it comes to famous fathers he is often named as the standard against which all others are measured. Even though, in a sequel no one expected, Go Set a Watchman, Atticus is like all mortals, and has feet of clay. Harper Lee drew upon her reverence for her own father when creating the character. Amasa Coleman Lee strongly resembled his literary counterpart Atticus, according to another literary giant who also grew up in the halo of his influence, Truman Capote.
Walker Percy channeled his adopted father, a distant cousin who was a poet named William Alexander Percy, when creating characters for his own fiction. Not only Walker, but four other great writers, Langston Hughes, Shelby Foote, Hodding Carter, and William Faulkner, all gave Will Percy credit for benign and paternal support in the early stages of their literary career. Each used characteristics of Percy when crafting the inhabitants of their fictional worlds. Most interestingly, Walker Percy, when the time came to create a character in the image of "Uncle Will," tapped into the femininity of the living man, and, swapping genders, created a fictional aunt who espoused all the virtues of his cousin/adopted father.
Jane Austen certainly drew upon the role model of her own father when creating characters such as Mr. Bennet. George Austen was an Anglican Rector who used the family home as a school for young boys. Like Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, he also is a younger son, and did not inherit any family land or wealth, and has a passel of daughters to marry off. George Austen deserves loud hosanas of praise on the part of lovers of literature, for he is the one who first recognized his daughter's talent as a writer, and in 1794 gave her a portable writing box on which she created, and in which she stored, her writings of a lifetime.
Not that one has to be a writer to recognize and communicate the strengths and weaknesses of our fathers. How many of us use literary examples when describing "Dad" to others? The pantheon of Shakespeare's writing offers a myriad of fathers, from King Lear to Hamlet senior. My favorite is Polonius, who is forever spouting advice which he himself rarely heeds. Let's not forget Titus Andronicus, who takes paternal revenge to a delicious level (wink, wink). There are even less savory fathers, such as Humbert Humbert, who has immoral designs upon his stepdaughter in Lolita. Likewise, Jack Torrance, in The Shining, will never win any awards for "Father of the Year".
For all of his crimes, Vito Corleone, was an overly protective father, and Godfather, going out of his way to reason with the enemies of his children, and make them an offer they couldn't refuse. Perhaps your father has the patient and quiet love of Charles Ingalls from the Little House on the Prairie book series, or the absent-minded affection of a Mr. Banks in P.L. Travers' novels about Mary Poppins. Personally, as a Star Wars obsessed child, I would follow my tall and imposing father around the house while loudly humming the Imperial march song from The Empire Strikes Back.
Fathership comes in many forms, and in the absence of a birth father mentorship can be equally rewarding. Tuesdays with Morrie is an outstanding example of the duality of having a mentor, and then caring for them as they struggle with age and disease. Could the tragic figure of Johnny in S.E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders have asked for a better mentor than the wild and equally ill-fated Dallas Winston? Unfortunately, like some fathers, not all mentors have our best interest at heart. In fact, the malign mentor is an often-used trope in literature. Lord Henry Wotten probably meant no harm, but his guidance led Dorian Gray down a path to destruction, even though he looked fabulous right up to the end.
Fatherhood is a complicated, and complex, role. While taking time to ponder our fathers, or father figures, this month, we should harken back to literature. There is a great chance that our fathers might have used similar role models when measuring their own father, or modeling the dad they wanted to be.
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