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Abstract

This essay explores the representation of masculinity in Sinclair Lewis's novel Mantrap. Of particular interest are changing definitions of masculinity and male friendship at the turn of the 20th century, the closing of the American frontier, and the implications of these sociohistorical changes on the literary depiction of masculine identity and male friendship. Lewis's novel highlights the tensions engendered by a nostalgia for wilderness renewal and manly love combined with a modern ethos of individual material success. In Mantrap, it is possible to see the ways in which both the wilderness and friendship disappoint the modern man. The argument in this essay has implications for the history and psychology of masculinity at the turn of the century as well as for literary studies of the ways in which masculinity is portrayed in fiction of the period.

Keywords

masculinity Sinclair Lewis male friendship American frontier wilderness masculinity in fiction

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“The Most Blatant of All Our American Myths”: Masculinity,Male Bonding,and the Wilderness in Sinclair Lewis's Mantrap

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