A Cmparative Study Of Julien And Xiangzi From The Perspective Of Existentialism

Rickshaw Boy and The Red and the Black represents the highest level of Lao She and Stendhal’s creation. Lao She and Stendhal’s humanitarian ideas are reflected in the character of Julien and Xiangzi, which resemble Sartre’s existentialism of humanitarian. Julien’s background, life experience and fate are the same as Xiangzi’s. Hero’s tragic fate in the tow novels are analysed from the perspective of existentialism and the method of parallel study is employed in this paper, looking forward to show the charm of the tow characters, to stimulate contemporary youths’passion.This paper is divided into three chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion.The introduction provides a literature review about Xiangzi and Julien at home and abroad, outlines the theories about existentialism as well as issues explored in this thesis.The main body includes three chapters. Chapter one is a theoretical introduction, including existentialism and parallel studies. Chapter two is aimed to elaborate on the similarities of the two characters from the perspective of existentialism in the framework of parallel studies. The first section focused on the absurd environment where they live in and their sense of absurdity under such circumstances. Both Xiangzi and Julien are against the circumstances where they are living in and are solitary individuals with irrational psychological experiences. Xiangzi and Julien both does free choice in their three vicissitudes of their lifetime respectively.The research significance of this thesis lies in that:the tragedies of these two characters are caused by the social background they live in. Julien lived in the era of the Bourbon restoration, so he could not achieve his ambition by breaking the hierarchy. Likewise, Xiangzi lived in the 1920’s and 1930’s China, during which common people were treated unfairly and such reality resulted in the failure of Xiangzi more than one time. Ether Lao She, Stendhal or Sartre are thinking about people’s state of survival, self-realization and so on, which showed their humanitarian spirit deeply. The two characters both fighting for realizing their dreams. Although, they both live in the absurd world, they make free choice. Their spirit is worth learning by the youth.