ILN Journal: Indian Literary Narratives

Articles

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2026): ILN Journal: Indian Literary Narratives

Existential Theodicy in Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins

Submitted
2 May 2026
Published
2026-06-30

Abstract

Walker Percy’s novel Love in the Ruins opens a discourse on serious societal issues that ruin morality. In the world after the World Wars, the role of morality and social systems became ambiguous, and Walker Percy articulates the importance of falling back on the old belief systems, God and Religion through his fiction and non-fiction. The researcher explores the novel’s perspective on faith, spirituality, and moral integrity amidst societal chaos and existential ambiguities. This research article focuses on the problems of evil, Walker Percy’s preoccupation with religion, and the context of moral integrity in the past and present. Religious writings can use symbolism and imagery to represent the ambiguity in morals that haunted the twentieth century. This article focuses on the nuanced insights of theodicy and existentialism, along with their converging points.

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