The Influence Of American Individualism On The Heroic Images In The American Western Fiction

The American western fiction has been holding little consideration of the scholars at home and abroad for a long time because of its position of the popular fiction in American literature,although it is considered as a literary phenomenon which has the most native feature. With the rise of multiculturalism trend at present, more favorable environment is provided to research it. It is the best way for understanding the American local culture and history to study the American western fiction which is bred during the course of the frontier-running and Westward Movement.American individualism is the very core of American culture and mainstream value. It plays the leading role in American society, popular mind even economical and political fields.The author of the thesis finds that the important relation lies in between American individualism and the American western fiction. They are connected by the word"hero"in the thesis, that is, the heroic images in the American western fiction are shaped under the influence of American individualism. The thesis chooses the most representative three novels in the history of the American western fiction: The Last of the Mohicans (1826) written by James Fenimore Cooper, The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (1902) by Owen Wister and Lonesome Dove (1985) by Larry McMurtry; and analyzes the image-building of the heroes in them from the angle of American individualism.The significance of the thesis rests with raising the critics'concerns about the American western fiction, promoting its place and deepening comprehension to it through this research of combining the popular literature and mainstream culture. Meantime, American core culture, the history of Westward Movement and their effects on America may be known more profoundly as well.The thesis includes five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction which successively shows research method, motivation, contents and significance.Chapter two gives a general introduction of the American western fiction which contains the definition, the brief developing history, the studies at home and abroad, the review of the three chosen fictions and the cause of selecting them.Chapter three is devoted to illuminate American individualism in more detail. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first one introduces the formation of American individualism which covers its origin and definition, the impacts of Puritanism and Westward Movement and the relationship between it and American democracy. The second one summarizes its essence. The third one embodies its transition in different period.Chapter four is the core of the thesis. The focus of the chapter is to elaborate on the effects of American individualism on the heroic images in the selected three works: Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans, the Virginian in The Virginian and Call in Lonesome Dove. It involves two parts. The first one clarifies the similarities of these heroic images which are presented owing to the impacts of the essence of American individualism. The second one elucidates their changes which are embodied thanks to the influence of the variation of American individualism.Chapter five is the conclusion. It mainly expounds that American individualism plays an important role in the image-building of the heroes in the American western fiction: American individualism is the main line throughout the American western fiction and decides the image-building of the heroes in it.