The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic is the imagined America in which all the good culture myths are put into play. Historically, Americans believed their economic and social culture to be above others, especially those who were immigrating to the country from Europe. To those who were aware of the incoming population, the newcomers had no real comprehension of what it took to be the quintessential American. Frederic took these prejudices and turned them into the characters of this novel in order to show his own thoughts on what it took to preserve American values; being able to incorporate not only one’s own culture but others in order to live a full life. Through characters like Theron Ware and Celia Madden, Frederic is able to …show more content…
In other words, she is surrounded by others her own age who also questioning where they belong in America. Are they American or are they Irish? Are they Catholic or should they give into the Methodist PRotestants who outnumber them? These internal questions that a person like Celia would have very likely had to answer is Frederic’s way of critiquing the then modern Americanism that in fact separated and isolated instead of uniting those who were immigrating. Frederic exposes the hypocrisy within the reclusive arc of American culture especially when comparing Celia to characters like Loren Pierce, an Octavius trustee who "does not know how to smile" and is very anti-Irish Catholic. Though only one character, Loren represents the racial superior attitude that would have ran rampant in a such a small town during the early twentieth century. He is the embodiment of the unartistic and uneducated culture that those like Celia would have been exposed to on a daily basis and she still manages to create an unique identity, one that separates her from others and allows her to teach what she has learned to those like …show more content…
Theron is a young Methodist minister whose religious training and faith are too frail to support the stresses of his life. Unhappy as a small-town minister, he decides to write a book about Abraham, only to find that his learning is too slight on this or any intellectual subject. As his faith totters, he becomes suspicious of people and alienates his friends and his wife. It is not until his friends confront and abandon him that Theron begins to redeem himself as an American. He is able to see how he allowed his own prejudices to manipulate his judgement even to the point of accusing his wife, who was nothing less than loyal to him, of adultery. He learns that his Catholic acquaintances have a great deal more culture than he, especially when he develops a friendship with Celia. Even though Celia is not the only friend that he loses, she is one the more important because of the obsession that he develops over her which proves to be the downfall of their friendship but his redemption as a potential candidate to become a part of the Americanism Frederic was trying to develop. Ware crosses cultural boundaries by simply walking in spaces such as roads, sidewalks, and the countryside. It is not until the conclusion of the novel that Ware becomes