Zuckerman’s Identity Crisis In Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer

Philip Roth is one of the Jewish writers who have been active in contemporaryliterary world. He got his fame by virtue of Goodbye, Columbus overnight. After that,he has produced numerous works, and almost put all the literary prizes in his pockets,he was once selected as the candidate of the Nobel Prize in literature. As adistinguished Jewish writer, Roth is famous for his distinctive angle and humorousstyle, which brings a lot of praises to him. However, in his fictions, he is “notorious”for his criticism and irony of Jewish life and traditions, which render him ananti-semitic. Actually, neither does he deny his Jewish identity, nor he rejects toaccept the Jewish traditions. He just describes his Jewish characters in a differentway. The Ghost Writer is such a novel which covers many themes. On the basis oftextual analysis, this paper intends to probe into the alter ego of Roth---NathanZuckerman’s identity crisis during the pursuit of his literary ideal by applying theidentity theory from Stuart Hall and Irvin Cemil Schick. It also expounds the reasonsof the loss in his identity and Roth’s distinctive handle of this problem.As an immigrant country, America is one of the most important places ofgathering for Jewish people. The first generation still keeps their Jewish traditionsafter long wandering and suffering. While the second and third generations suffer agreat cultural shock after settlement in the melting pot of America. They aregradually trapped into the identity crisis between Jewish and America cultures.Zuckerman is an Jewish young man who lives under such circumstance. He is afledgling writer who has achieved a little fame in literary writing. One of hisunpublished fictions which reveals a family scandal stirs up his father’s resoluteopposition. His determination to pursue an artistic ideal takes him to his idol’s homewhere he hopes he can find something useful for his literary career. While what hefinally found out turns out to be his doubt on his identity, he is a man who is trappedbetween Jewish culture and American culture, who struggles in two different modes of writing, who wanders between life and art. He is lost in his own identity.Zuckerman’s identity crisis is the reflection of modern Jewish people.