Love's Whipping Boy: Violence and Sentimentality in the American Imagination

Index

(205) INDEX Abolition, 13, 68–69 Abraham and Isaac, 16, 22, 28, 30–31, 35–36, 38–39, 41, 45, 137, 143, 173 Abu Ghraib, 172 Abusers. See Perpetrators (of violence) Aggression: and Christianity, 2, 158; and authenticity, 2, 168; and masculinity , 3, 8, 9, 14, 45, 94, 108, 141; and sentiment, 9; and affection , 44; as liberating, 92; displacement by fathers onto sons, 124, 125, 134; internalizing of, 146, 147–48, 157. See also Boyish aggression; Empathy: and aggression ; Violence Ahab, 53, 80 Alcott, Bronson, 129–30, 133, 135, 136, 198 (n. 19), 199 (n. 22); and Temple School, 132, 198–99 (n. 21), 199 (n. 24) Alcott, Louisa May, 7, 13, 21–22, 125– 36, 164–65; as child, 129–30, 198 (n. 17), 199 (n. 24). See also Jo’s Boys; Little Men; Little Women Aldrich,Thomas Bailey: The Story of a Bad Boy, 156, 202–3 (n. 55) America: as empathetic nation, 3, 8, 15, 170; and “exceptionalism ,” 14–15, 173; as abused son, 41; as “redeemer” nation, 168; as martyr, 171 Andrews,William, 191 (n. 27) Atonement, 113, 114, 118, 145 Authenticity: as being Christlike, 1; and suffering, 1–2; and whiteness, 18; and violence, 168 Axelrod, Alan, 38, 39 “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (Melville), 16–17, 54, 55, 56–67, 70, 79 Barton, Mark, 25–28, 32 Beadle,William. See Narrative of the Life of William Beadle, A Bederman, Gail, 9 Benevolence, 61–62, 83 Benito Cereno (Melville), 87 Berlant, Lauren, 13–14, 170 Billy Budd (Melville), 173–74 Boy-books, 21, 125, 152, 156, 162, 163, 203 (n. 55) Boyhood: loss of, 124, 152, 155, 162; and freedom, 149 Boyish aggression, 141, 153, 163; and pleasure, 8, 126, 134, 136, 138, 140, 147, 151, 162; internalized, 128, 129, 133, 134; mirroring parent’s aggression, 143; consequences of, 158 Boys: as sadistic, 21, 127; feminized, 22, 127, 134, 145; and war, 123–25, 163; and maturation, 125, 127; cultural ambivalence toward, 125–26; identified with fathers, (206) Index 127, 128, 133–35, 144; and “playing Indian,” 142, 152, 156; as “temporary ” savages (primitive), 148, 152, 155, 161, 162, 201 (n. 42); and Native Americans, 152; as animals , 154–55. See also Sons Brockden Brown, Charles, 7, 16, 28, 36–50. See also Wieland, or The Transformation Brodhead, Richard, 9, 129, 130–31, 135 Brown, John, 12, 17–19, 21, 22, 89, 106–21, 124–25, 128, 132, 133, 194 (nn. 51, 54); as martyr, 19, 90, 109, 112, 115, 121, 195 (n. 61); as national “whipping boy,” 19, 90, 114, 115; as “black,” 107–8, 121; Calvinist beliefs of, 112–13, 195 (n. 55) Brown, John, Jr., 12, 113–14, 118, 132 Bush, George W., 14, 169–72 Butler, Judith, 11, 178 (n. 20) Cannibals All! (Fitzhugh), 83, 84 Chandler, Elizabeth, 68 Charity, 61–63; and prosperity, 62, 63 Cheever, George B., 62, 109 Child, Lydia Maria, 109, 110 “Child Is Being Beaten, A” (Freud), 20, 128 Christ, 5, 10, 22, 48, 53, 61, 67, 84, 86, 138, 143, 144, 172; as empathetic , 10; martyrdom of as paradigm in American literature, 10, 22, 48–49, 140; as whipping boy, 10, 79; identified with biblical Isaac, 30–31 Christianity, 31, 50, 84–85, 96; and capitalism, 58, 60; and patriarchalism , 89; and race, 108; and empathy, 140, 169. See also Violence : and Christianity Christian love (charity), 3, 58, 60, 65, 106, 109; achieved through violence , 120 Civil War (American), 13, 15, 21, 123–26, 146, 162, 167, 173 Clinton, Bill, 171 Cohen, Daniel A., 28 Compassion, 153, 169, 170–71; “compassionate conservatism,” 170; “armies of,” 170, 171, 172; brought about through violence, 171–72 Connor, Kimberly Rae, 108 Cowen,Walker, 80 Crowley, John, 162 Dana, Richard Henry, 73. See also Two Years before the Mast De Bruyn, Theodore, 112 De Caro, Louis, 193 (n. 44) Deism, 33–34 Delusion, religious, 38–40, 44, 48 DeVries, Hent, 176 (n. 12) Disavowal, 11; of power, 8, 14, 38, 41, 115, 171–72; of violence, 12, 168 Dolls: abuse of, 137–40, 141–42, 145; analogous to children, 139–44 Douglass, Frederick, 12, 17–18, 69–70, 89, 90, 91–107, 120, 192 (n. 32); and John Brown, 106–7, 194 (n. 51), 195 (n. 60). See also “Heroic Slave,The”; My Bondage and My Freedom; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Edwards, Jonathan, 113 Ellison, Julie, 179 (n. 26), 186 (n. 13) Index (207) Emerson...