John Steinbeck's Way Of Reconstructing The Images Of The Chinsese American

John Steinbeck is the famous writer who won the Nobel Prize in1962, yet occupied a pivotal position in the literature history in the first half of Twentieth century of the United States. Among his works, East of Eden and Cannery Row were his most important and favorite one. In the two novels, he created two Chinese American, Lee and Li Zhong, although who were not the leading character, the indispensable and important character, even the soul figure. They represented the ideas and concepts ideas of Steinbeck.This thesis will combine the reality of American society and history, apply the comparative literature theory as the basis, and analysis two Chinese American character in East of Eden and Cannery Row. Through comparing these two images with the traditional Chinese American, I will discuss that creative writing of Steinbeck is subversion and reconstruction to traditional Chinese American image, and probe into his ideological roots.This thesis consists of six parts.Chapter one, Introduction. This chapter presents the research topic of researching the Chinese American image in novels of Steinbeck, the recent status and significance of the research, and Research ideas and the comparative literature Literary Theory.Chapter two, I will analyze the traditional Chinese American image in American society, illuminate when Chinese immigranted to the United States, the living conditions and reality of Chinese American, and how can Chinese American be transfigured or defaced.Chapter three, I will analyze two Chinese Americans in Cannery Row and East of Eden, discuss the process of how can Steinbeck overturn the traditional image of Chinese Americans in that two novels. From the way of life hamonize into American society to become a real person, Steinbeck address the contribution of the Chinese American, and subvert the Orientalism ideology of traditional Chinese American. Chapter four. I will analyze the reconstruction of the two images of Chinese Americans in Steinbeck's novels. Steinbeck not only do not discriminate against Chinese Americans, but also treat the Chinese American as ordinary people, equality, fraternity, the pursuit of freedom and happiness. He reconstructed Chinese American as friend, merciful father, and spiritual mentor of American people, in order to constitute a equal and friendly relationship among the contemporary American racial relations, and put everyone into a being called the"transnational Eden".Chapter five will quest the ideological roots of reconstruction of Chinese American in Steinbeck's ideology which were Taoist thinking, non-teleological thinking, "Bible" thought, and utopian thinking. At the same time, Steinbeck conveys the great concept of the beautiful Garden of Eden.Chapter six. Conclusion.