Innovation Of Narrative Devices Analysis Of The Tree Of Man

The celebrated writer Patrick White is widely accepted as the founder of Australian modern literature. His works are famous for reflecting the complexity of the modern world and the deep crisis of human being’s spiritual life One of his masterpieces The Tree of Man for the first time won him the great international reputation. Many scholars and critics started to attach attention to this promising writer. Myriad articles and monographs have been worked out all over the world from various aspects, such as his literary merits, religious themes, attitudes towards sexuality and so on. However, to my knowledge, few have discussed this work from the perspective of narrative devices, especially his wide use of allegories and symbols. Therefore, this thesis endeavors to probe into both the allegories and symbols employed in The Tree of Man in order to help readers get a better and further understanding of the significance of the novel and the purpose of the author. By applying symbolism and the theory of Benjamin’s allegory, this paper explores The Tree of Man from five aspects.To start with, it is the general introduction of Patrick White and The Tree of Man. It elaborates on the noticeable role this novel played in the development of Australian literature. In this part the thesis also makes a brief survey of the literature review.The second part defines the meaning of "allegory" and "symbol" on the basis of giving an overview of the development of allegory theory and symbolism. Meanwhile, it analyzes the influence of western culture exerted on White’s creation.The third part mainly investigates the essential modern allegorical features on the basis of careful reading about the text. Firstly, allegorical environment and characters embodies the redemption characteristic. Secondly, many detailed descriptions about the historical background of the story show the secularity of modern allegory. Thirdly, the thesis analyzes the characteristic of fragmentation from two aspects, the ruined world and the split characters. Fourthly, many examples are illustrated to show the melancholic tone of modern allegory. Last but not least, various interpretations of themes of the novel from different perspectives prove The Tree of Man is a successful and profound allegorical writing.The fourth part analyzes the manifestations of symbolism in this novel. Symbolic transcendence is mainly shown from White’s employment of Biblical archetypes in describing the atmosphere. Symbolic oneness is primarily represented from the relationship between man and God in the text. Moreover, the thesis summarizes two distinguished lines of symbolic structure. One is "paradise-depravation-suffering-and mandala". Another is the narrative structure about the silver nutmeg grater, i.e."gained-lost-regained".The last part is the conclusion part. By using the modern allegorical theory and symbolism and analyzing The Tree of Man in details the writer draws a conclusion that White innovates narrative devices of this novel by utilizing allegories and svmbols.