Women Behind the Wheel: Anne Tyler and Jill McCorkle's Female Heroes and Their Quest for Self-Discovery.

Abstract

This thesis examines the influence the car has on the female heroes' quest for self-discovery. The car is a form of escape for the female characters that Anne Tyler and Jill McCorkle create in their works Ladder of Years, Earthly Possessions, Crash Diet, and Ferris Beach. Through the availability of the car they are able to move away from the angel in the home stereotype and toward seeing themselves as individuals who are neither angel not devil but realistically somewhere in between. While the women studied, Delia, Charlotte, Sandra, and Kate may not know their destination, they know that they must find themselves, spiritually, sexually, and personally. Tyler and McCorkle give their female characters the option to find themselves. It is through analysis of their escape, and heroic quest for self-discovery with the car that we are able to learn a great deal and women's cultural oppression and the strides that society, including Anne Tyler and Jill McCorkle, is making in the progression toward female equality.