Rational Obedience After The Conflict

William·Somerset·Maugham (1874-1965) is a British contemporaryfamous writer. In the history of English literature, suiting elegant as well ascommon people, he is well received by readers. As a prolific writer, exceptfor poems, he is involved and gets achievements in a variety of literarycreations. In all he writes 20 novels, more than 100 short stories, and 30plays. Besides, a large amount of travel notes, memoirs, literary criticismsand other literary works are also created by him. Among his various formsof literary works, he is especially good at writing novels and short stories.His works have been once translated into other languages, and many novelsare filmed. It is because of this that he deserves such an honor "as one of themost popular novelists in the first half of the twentieth Century”. Of all hisworks, what are more famous and influencing are The Moon and Sixpence,the Razor’s Edge, Cakes and Ale and so on.This thesis, with the obviously autobiography great work Of HumanBondage as the research object, makes analysis of the protagonist Philip’sself-salvation in the perspective of socialization. According to some theoriesabout sociology, there are two ways to achieve socialization, namely socialeducation and individual internalization. From the novel we know thatPhilip experiences socialization mainly reflected in the following threeaspects: religion, love and marriage, occupation, and clashes between Philipas a perceptual individual and social education happen to all these threeaspects. Such intense conflicts make Philip suffer damages to his owninterests and losing of freedom, which thus not only leads to a set of heavymental shackles for Philip but also causes individual internalization’stemporary stagnation. At this time, social guidance begins to play an important role: faced with such a dilemma, Philip, with the help of rationalthinking, decides to sacrifice immediate interests and transient freedom inorder to gain long-term interests and permanent freedom. He finally obeyssocial education and then promotes individual internalization to go onsmoothly. Later, Philip achieves socialization successfully. At the same time,Philip also realizes a perfect self-redemption and at last gets out of the plightof the spirit. The thesis contains four chapters in addition to an introductionand a conclusion.In the Introduction, the thesis firstly gives a brief introduction toWilliam·Somerset·Maugham himself and his literary achievements;secondly it is a story outline Of Human Bondage and analysis of the novel’stheme; In the last part, based on the summary of the research status OfHuman Bondage at home and abroad, the author puts forward theinnovative points and research significance of this thesis.Chapter one is mainly about the core theories of this thesis. After abrief introduction to some basic theories such as the concept of socialization,its specific performance and so on, the two basic ways to realize thesocialization and the relationship between them are analyzed emphatically.At the same time, the term "social guidance" is also discussed in detail.When individual and social education is faced with a direct conflict, "socialguidance", as a potential strength, makes adjustment of such a conflict. Atthis time the individual’s rationality occupies a dominant position beyondsensibility, after which the individual makes obedience to socialization andurges its completion. In fact, however, behind this rational obedience, aninitiative and motive to pursue long-term interests and individual permanentfreedom can be found.In Chapter two, firstly from the point of view of religious socialization, the author discusses the spiritual bondage felt by Philip, namely, the intenseconflict between Philip as a social individual and religious social education.It is because of this contradiction that religion makes Philip feel ratherdepressed. And what eventually saves Philip, and brings him real freedom ishis correct use of rational thinking through the regulation of the socialguidance.Chapter three mainly discusses Philip’s occupational socialization andthe final choice made by Philip when encountered with the conflictbetween Philip himself and social education. Philip seemingly shows thepassive compromise to socialization, but in fact he aims to achieve theultimate goal of self-redemption with the help of rational obedience tosocialization.In Chapter four, on the basis of Philip’s love experiences, the authormakes interpretation of Philip’s self-salvation process with the theory ofsocialization. "trying to stop but cannot, and feeling so sad as to end his life"can be seen as the exact description of his emotional entanglement, whichcauses Philip to show obvious contradiction while experiencing the socialeducation of marriage. To him, the marriage without love as the primecondition seems to be bondage. However, social guidance helps Philip whorelies on rational power to break through spiritual barriers, and Philip wonthe emotional relief.The conclusion, after a summary of the research of socialization on thenovel, points out explicitly that the conflict between Philip, as an individual,and social education makes his soul bounded. Then, social guidance, as apositive force, makes Philip rely on rational thinking, make correct choice,and finally be able to save Philip himself, getting spiritual liberation.