Assertion Of Individuality And Compromise To Family Harmony

Anne Tyler is one of American's most acclaimed novelists and early in 1994 was nominated "greatest living American novelist in English" in the Sunday Times. She is regarded by John Updike as a "wickedly good" novelist and short-story writer: "...funny and lyric and true, exquisite in details and ambitious in design...", well-known for her keen sensitivity for dialogue and life-like characters in her fictions, centering on the ordinary people in the daily life of small-scaled middle-class families, and penetrating into their ambitions, dreams, weakness and crisis. Since the first novel If Morning Ever Comes was launched in 1964, her voyage to the literary world has been recognizably productive: short stories, novels, book reviews and so on, and no less well-received. Dinner at Homesick Restaurant, nominated by Pulitzer Prize and which earned her Faulkner Award for Fiction, established her among the American literary world, and the eleventh novel Breathing Lessons ranked her Pulitzer Prize winner in 1989.Even so, Tyler's reputation in the academic field is less than she deserves as her works don't easily fit into intellectual fashions. In America, Paul Bail's Anne Tyler: a Critical Companion and Voelker's Art and the Accidental in Anne Tyler are two distinctive books, both of which systematically introduce the characters, contents and themes of her novels, a great help for readers. Bail gives illuminating perspective on how to study Tyler with different literary theories, while Voelker talks about the themes—the relationship of individual identity and family, life and art, in Tyler's novels. In China, Tyler study is confined to book reviews and some Master Degree theses. The researches need to be continued. Inherited to Voelker's thoughts on the relationship of individuals and family, and by employing the existential concepts of freedom, responsibility, and poetically dwelling, the thesis analyzes the male characters in Tyler's works and their living conditions, to develop the universal significance of her works by reading Tyler from this new point of view.As one of the finest novelists of psychologically acute domesticity, Tyler believes in the obstinate endurance of human spirit, which is reflected by the wildly individual characters she creates. Though she manages to keep a distance, Tyler is sympathetic to those characters to the extent which the male characters with socially demeaning terms like morons, losers, misfits are normal human beings in her works as they are just ordinary people like one of us who undergo great pressure of how to keep the inner world intact in the face of the outside world. The sound and fury of the unlimited domestic engagements is beyond the males' comprehension even if they submitted themselves totally, let alone as individuals, they could never surrender their inner self. However, Tyler distinctively values their courage to assert their individuality, feels touched by their efforts to cope with the chaotic world and applauds their adjustments to make a compromise on the family all along. Tyler' subtle and insightful vision and a cultivated concern over human condition constitute the unique Tyler style. Influenced by the transcendentalists, she exalts the value of individuals; the existential perspective leads to a deeper understanding of human existence; meanwhile, the drastic changes in American families are the elements to her novels. The thesis analyzes Tyler's male characters that play different roles as sons, husbands and fathers at different stages. They have common in the dilemma to balance assertion of individuality and taking responsibilities. From this new perspective, Tyler's works and her innovations are anatomized, which reflects Tyler's prospect of poetically dwelling.Chapter One gives a thorough and detailed analysis of the male characters' assertion of individuality in the family context. In their different roles in the family: as a son, as a husband and as a father, they have different ways to preserve their inner independence and pursue their freedom, which is influenced by the social changes and that has impact on the family and society as well. Rebellious sons declare their independence by diverting from family traditions; husbands play solitary to keep their inner world intact or just walk out on their family; fathers avoid involvement in their offspring's development. They feel suffocating and trapped in the family, and their assertion of individuality is a cry to pursue their inner freedom.Chapter Two contrasts with the other side of freedom—the necessity to take responsibility for the family. The running and returning pattern has a thematic significance in the novels. These males need a kind of assertion to keep their individuality from encroachment on one hand, and on the other hand, they also demand certain family interactions and connections to complete the integrity of their individuality. To take dutiful responsibility is not only socially presumed and expected, but also it is a path to achieve the whole self, which is essential to the peace of mind for individuals and a necessity to family harmony. The thesis argues that assertion of individuality brings freedom, but with responsibility accompanied, the enjoyment of freedom in finitude context is not only a freedom only possible but also a necessity to harmony of the family. Anyhow, the males in their evading from their family would show their willingness to return to the family, implicitly or explicitly.Chapter Three employs Heidegger's concept of "poetically dwelling on the earth" as an ideal destiny for Tyler's male characters and Tyler's own prospect for an ideal family life based on the analysis of the previous chapters. Poetically dwelling is not only a state of aesthetic appreciation but also subjective creation and building: is a state of in-and-out harmony: freedom of being oneself and harmony with the external circumstances. The thesis elucidates that by the power of thinking, individuals could not only penetrate the world of Nature, and they could also experience inner kinship to their own deepest self. The transcendental purpose of life makes the intention to assert oneself compromise on the dutiful responsibility for the family harmony through their wishes to take dutiful responsibilities. The males in Tyler's works are not the savior of the family or the backbone of society, but they at least have an enriched inner life. They use their way to alleviate the pains of frustrations, setbacks and misunderstandings in their family for a balanced life, which to some extent Tyler celebrates as the chances of dwelling poetically.A free man is who knows himself in the changing world and faces up to his own life in the confined circumstances rather than evading from it. This is the freedom that will bring inner harmony. If assertion of individuality and pursuit of freedom is combined with taking family responsibility to balance family relationship, family harmony can be realized and poetically dwelling is not far from sight. In a dilemma between assertion of individuality and taking responsibilities, the male characters haven't been elevated to that harmonious state as their selfhood is incomplete and their family is full of clashes, resentment, separation, love and hatred, betrayal and loyalty. Based on the analysis of Tyler's characters and changes in contemporary American families, the thesis puts forward that an elevated state of family harmony is in the prospect in Tyler's novels if they can balance assertion of individuality and taking responsibility with an aesthetic transcendence of poetically dwelling. Assertion of individuality is the necessity to preserve the wholeness of self and precondition of inner harmony, which is also the key to family harmony. Only harmony inside and out can make "poetically dwelling" possible.