An Existentialist Interpretation Of Them

them is Joyce Carol Oates’s representative work which won not only popularsuccess but also critical praise. In this novel, Oates portrays the chaos of Americansociety from1930s to late1960s and the story of how protagonists seek freedom andauthentic existence.Researches on this novel cover the topics of the themes, writing techniques, writingstyles and so on. This thesis attempts to interpret the novel from the perspectives ofExistentialism.Existentialism is a philosophical movement arisen in the late19thcentury. Itexplores the problem of human existence, concerning the absurdity of the world and thealienated living condition of human being. Nevertheless, Existentialism is not a hphilosophy, for it emphasizes great importance to individual’s pursuit for freedom whichencourages people to make free choices and take responsibility, and finally achieve hisauthentic existence. This aspect of Existentialism has extensive practical value intoday’s society.them reveals Oates’s existentialistic thoughts. In the novel, protagonists suffer a lot ina chaotic and absurd world where violence exists everywhere and people alienate fromeach other. Under the great social pressure, they feel depressed, desperate, lonely andanxious. As a result, some people choose to bear the absurd life by avoiding theirresponsibility, such as Loretta and Maureen, and some like Jules who breaks through aseries of difficulties manage to achieve authentic freedom by making free choice andtaking responsibility at last.The thesis consists of six parts below:Introduction part gives a brief description of Oates and the novel them, and also areview of criticism abroad and at home. Chapter one will present the origin,development and the core concepts of existentialism, and a brief introduction to theexistentialist thoughts embodied in them. Chapter two analyzes absurdity of the worldshowed in them which mainly interprets from two aspects----people’s anxiety living inthe chaotic society and chaotic social institutions. Chapter three explores anotherexistentialist thought showed in them, alienation between human beings, which mainlyinterprets with the estrangement among the Wendall family members. Chapter fourfocuses on the most important and significant thought in existentialism, namely freechoice and responsibility. This chapter comprises two parts: part one centers on theissue of bad faith which contains Loretta’s psychic suicide and Maureen’s self-deception;part two deals with Jules’s pursuit for authentic freedom by taking responsibility.Finally, the thesis comes to conclusion. Based on the analysis of above four chapters,we can draw the conclusion that the existentialist interpretation of them demonstratesOates’s strong concern about the living predicament of modern people and alsoenlightens us that the only way to achieve authentic existence is to take responsibility.