| The paradigm in John Fowles's fiction is one of an apparently "free" individual who through hazard (chance) confronts in an unfamiliar setting his or her opposite or ideal: through role-playing and introspection, this individual achieves heightened self-awareness, a new moral awareness of life's and freedom's paradoxes and possibilities. Concomitant with the thematic focus of Fowles's work is its wide range of structural and stylistic variation based on several literary traditions, a range that itself is paradoxical and contributes vitally to the thematic focus and the element of mystery in each novel or story. Each work portrays simultaneously how the protagonist reaches the "existential moment" of choice that will determine his or her future, and how innovations in technique and structure are essential to the freedom of the artist and the replenishment of fiction as a viable form of art.; My investigation shows that Fowles's work is consistent both in its innovative demonstrations of the possibilities of the novel and story as viable contemporary literary genres and in its central thematic concern: the "freedom between each two" is essential to life and to one's growth as an individual, and paradox--and acting upon the recognition of paradox--is essential to freedom. In a century of vast technological and social change, a century of "isms" that have created fragmentation rather than unity, Fowles uses paradox to create mystery, with the implied idea that each of us by necessity must seek oppositions, "paths" that ultimately will lead to self-awareness, a freedom through balance. Without the paradoxes, freedom--Daniel Martin's "whole sight"--remains imaginary. Each path is paradoxical, and represents a quest, but creates a resulting responsibility (through awareness of alternatives and consequences), action based on responsible choice. Perhaps in one's lifetime, one will follow all paths, leaving and returning in a cyclical process of quests and choices leading to a balanced moral awareness. In his fiction, Fowles presents many paths, and as "a good definition of God," he allows us the freedom to choose, to achieve our own "whole sight." And in doing so, also creates lasting, moral art. |
