The Public Burning | Characters
Because of its mass and its scope, the novel has a predictably large cast of characters. These can be broken down into three classes: historical victims; historical oppressors, by far the largest group; and personifications of public attributes.
Because one purpose of The Public Burning is to treat that moment in history at which the attitudes of America solidified into an unquestioning monism, Coover treats many historical figures as having mythic proportions. President Eisenhower's famous obscurantist rhetoric is effectively parodied and the General's insensitivity to the...
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