Interpretation On The Displacement Of The Biblical Archetypes In Mona In The Promised Land

Mona in the Promised Land is the masterpiece of a Chinese-American writer Gish Gen. The distinctive identity orientation for the American minorities has aroused strong social response upon its publication. Many researchers applied the Post-colonialism to studying the American minorities'search for their identities. Besides, under the subtle influence of the Christian cultures, Gish Jen integrates its quintessence into her novel, and thus endows the novel with thick religious colors and fulfills her work with ultimate concern about human's destiny.This paper attempts to apply Displacement to analyzing the biblical archetypes of the novel. The body of the paper consists of three parts. The first part explores how Gish Jen transplants the biblical characters, such as God, Moses, Jesus, Adam, Satan, Eve into the characters of the novel, such as Mona's parents, Mona, Seth, Alfred and Evie, and endows them with new meaning and features of the age. It aims to explore how the young characters with a Moses-style spirit search for freedom and equality under the authority and domination of God. The second part discusses the displacement of the archetypal images in the novel, such as the Promised Land, manna and the Tabernacle which correspond with the American society, the pancakes and the Teepee. This part aims to reveal that only the open American society can provide the soil for the appeals of freedom and equality of the minorities to come true, and the pancakes and Teepee separately symbolize God's love and restriction. The third part is the displacement of the U-shaped Narrative Structure of Bible, which reveals the tortuous process of Mona's searching for freedom and equality. The structure also endows Gish Jen's work with integrity and abundance.Based on the analysis of the novel from the biblical archetypal perspective, the paper aims to show the positive functions of the biblical concepts on the free and equal appeals of human beings. Besides, it is hoped that the active exploration of the human spirits can bridge the communication between the Eastern and Western Cultures.