Eschatological Perspectives in Walker Percy’s Novel The Second Coming

Abstract

The mystery about ‘life after death’ is the most recondite question to be introspected into. Religions count upon the credence of apocalypse that there will be God’s revelation and consequential guerdon and damnation at the end. Studying about such revelation of God and the after-effectis known as Eschatology. This transcendental reality attribute to the end of ordinary material reality which can beapprehended by senses and the reunion of the same with the Divine.The fictions that expose the apocalyptic adhering, postulate the termination of the present time and the dawn of a new era. Walker Percy, an American Apocalyptic novelist in his The Second Coming gauges the life in the second part and a kind of renewed and redeemed life of meaningfulness. Will Barrat, the prominent of all Percian heroes, of The Second Coming encounter the eternal inexplicable joy to the brim when he experiences conversion which leads to a new life that include not something utopian but the people around, his own kith and kin though imperfect. This article attempts to describe how Will Barrat, the protagonist achieves the heavenly bliss and brings transformation to his own existence. Eschatology, for him, is earth bound and the Realm of God is built up not toward the apocalypse yet is experienced through the chronos and among the individuals in their profound love for each other.