The Course Of Realizing Self - Analysis Of The Theme Of Trilogy Of "Our Ancestors"

Italo Calvino is a contemporary Italian writer who has international reputation. His three novels, The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees and The Nonexistent Knight, which were published as one book named Our Ancestors. The protagonist and the background of story in these three novels are different. The protagonist in The Nonexistent Knight Agilulfo was a knight of The Charlemagne, who was only a white armor without flesh and blood, surviving with the will. The protagonist in The Cloven Viscount Medardo was split into two parts in the late17th century Austria-Turkey war, and the right half was evil while the left one was kind. The protagonist in The Baron in the Trees Cosimo lived in the Age of Enlightenment, who climbed up the tree at his12years old and never returned to the earth in order to fight with his father’s autocracy and ridiculousness. These three novels were full of the colour of fairy tales and they metaphorically performed modern people’s living conditions.Based on intensive reading of the text, in combination with American psychoanalysis psychologist, humanistic philosopher Erich From and Russian ideologist Berdyaev’s theory of freedom, this thesis interprets the three protagonists’living conditions in Our Ancestors trilogy. It argues that the nonexistent knight represented the organization man without individuality in modern society, who escaped from freedom in order to survive. The right half of Medardo revolted against society with evil, and he began his road of freedom, and the other half was responsible for evil. The split viscount represented the split personality of modern people. The baron on the tree resisted authoritarian of family and society, and constantly seek the benefit for people and was engaged in the movement of the society at that time, in which he realized the self-worth. The baron on the tree represented the modern people who had completed self fully. The Nonexistent Knight The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees in turn expressed three different respects in the process of self-realization, which was from being slaved to becoming free, from being incomplete to being complete, from being a human who is lack of personality to being an individual one. But Cosimo was not an ideal person with complete personality. The request of complete personality did not end. Besides exploring how to realize the complete personality, Our Ancestors inspired us to think how do we live in the world, which was our spiritual wealth.