The Escape And Pursuit Of Freedom

Joan Didion, entering the literary field in the1960’s, has achieved great success incontemporary American Literature. Her works covers fiction, non-fiction and scriptwriting. Play It As It Lays depicts the social scenario of America in the1960’s andportrays especially the subsistent and psychological status of the female character Maria.It is for this reason that this novel becomes a symbol for the contemporary Americansociety.This novel centers upon the process of Maria’s psychological development,displaying the commonplace sense of people’s insecurity and anxiety at that time, thoughthey enjoy the abundant material pleasures. Living in the1960’s, Maria takes onunconsciously all those features of that time, but only finds disappointment in themechanism of how people think and behave. She feels more and more alienated andpowerless in that world, which leads her to the midst of void. In this thesis, the socialpsychological theories by Erich Fromm are applied to analyze Maria’s psychologicaldevelopment in the postmodern society. The theoretical framework, with “freedom” as itscore conception, is intended to analyze the meaning of freedom to modern man as well asthe reasons why people want to escape passive freedom and then point out the path topositive freedom. Maria’s psychological status can be divided into two periods: theescape of passive freedom and the pursuit of positive freedom. Maria has experienced thedisillusionment of the simulated Hollywood, wanting to escape the freedom that isgained through material pleasures and to pursue her individual freedom.The actions that Maria takes to escape the passive aspect of freedom almost end upwith her self-destruction. For Maria, the three mechanisms of escape brought up byFromm, namely, authoritarianism, destructiveness and automaton conformity, are allattempted by her unconsciously. However, by adopting these three escape mechanisms,Maria feels more isolated and anxious than ever. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t want toperform as a part of this big machine called capitalism at the cost of losing herself. That’s why she is defined by the society as a neurotic and ends up in neuropsychiatric hospital.Then Maria is on her way to freedom in a positive sense, which is realized throughspontaneous love and work. The fact is that, in this novel, we only see the tendency andattempts of Maria’s spontaneous activities as an individual self. The spontaneityproposed by Fromm doesn’t necessarily lead to any tangible results, but the willingnessof individual to fully realize his true self. Through all the spontaneous activitiesmentioned above, Maria sets off on her way to freedom and salvation.