In his philosophical novel Lancelot, Walker Percy touches upon a number of provocative issues. Although many are interesting, one topic that stands out in particular is the idea of whether or not a woman can be violated by a man. A discussion of the various positions of this ideological question would take a series of books with each volume many times thicker than this paper. However, it is certainly possible to examine how the question is treated in a specific work. Doing so then allows us to see the ramifications of holding either belief on the character. Although strictly confined to the literary world, it can be enlightening to see the differences that define each position influence a character's interactions with other characters; if only hypothetically.
             A passage from Percy's Lancelot provides for some good ballast that can jumpstart the debate on the violability or inviolability of women. On page 251, Lancelot asks Anna, the rape victim in the adjacent cell, to accompany him in his life after the asylum. When Lancelot says that Anna has suffered "the worst violation a woman can suffer," she responds angrily. "Are you suggesting," she says, "that I, myself, me, my person, can be violated by a man?" Anna neatly delineates the subject of contention with her response. To say that a woman can be violated necessarily means that women do not have complete control over themselves. Instead, they must rely on men as a source of pleasure, and therefore, a potential source of hurt. Anna is obviously against this notion. "You goddamn men," she says. "Don't you know there are more important things in this world?" Obviously, she does not consider men as the be all and end all of her life.
             Although she directly mentions it, Anna does not actually define anything else that is more important in this world. Lancelot suspects that she is lying, even to herself. Lancelot explain...