A Study On Southern American Society In Clock Without Hands From The Perspective Of Fromm’s Alienation Theory

Carson Mc Cullers is an important female writer in the history of American Southern literature,and her works are full of description of Southern society.Clock Without Hands,her last novel,describes the Southern people and events in the mid-twentieth century.Most research outcomes focus on characters and mental description in the novel,a few are concerned with its social discourse,but few literary critics probe the alienation and its connection with society and history.This thesis explores the characters’ alienation condition in the South from the perspective of the Alienation Theory,which Fromm also emphasizes the individual experience and social elements,so as to reveal the panorama of Southern American society in Clock Without Hands.This thesis concludes that Mc Cullers’ description on social alienation and social changes of the novel presents Southern advancement in the twentieth century,and it provides a new way to understand Southern society in Clock Without Hands,with the analysis of its theme of alienation.