A study of personality in literary autobiography: An analysis of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel..

Abstract

Analyzed physical and psychological traits used by Thomas Wolfe to describe self and others in Look Homeward, Angel as a method for studying personality. Set-theoretical comparisons (HICLAS algorithm) of the traits he attributed to self during 5 successive age periods revealed that Wolfe viewed his development as the accumulation over time of core family traits, particularly those of father. Multidimensional scaling revealed sharp differences between trait content Wolfe attributed to self and family and trait content he attributed to nonfamily. Interpretable differences were also found between family and nonfamily in the proportion of unique traits attributed to a person. In addition, differences were found in the proportion of unique traits attributed to self during the 5 different age periods. Implications of the findings for personality are discussed. Look Homeward, Angel (LHA) is a fictionalized autobiography of Thomas Wolfe's life from his infancy to his early 20s. Most of the people and places described in the book are readily identifiable despite their fictional aliases. The elements selected from LHA for analysis are all the characteristics, physical and psychological, that Wolfe attributed to himself and to others in the novel. The focus of this study is on personality organization as reflected in these views that Wolfe held of himself and others. Although the subject of this study is Wolfe, its basic purpose is to demonstrate the value of an in-depth analysis of an individual's view of self and others in autobiography (particularly one as articulate and personal as Wolfe's) as a way of studying personality organization in general. The psychology of autobiography, the use of literary materials to study personality, and a social psychological conception of personality and personality development—all provide the orientation and certain general assumptions underlying this study of Thomas Wolfe's fictionalized autobiography as a study of personality. The introductory remarks that follow are intended to make explicit how this study is rooted in each of these