The Evolution Of Themes In Amy Tan’s Works From The Perspective Of Existentialism

Chinese American writer Amy Tan is a unique novelist. Her reputation and influencehave been on the growth since1989when her first novel The Joy Luck Club was publishedand later adapted for film and several other works were published during this period of time.For the unique perspective of creation and profound significance of her works, she became asuccessful figure of Chinese American writers. Amy Tan’s representative works reflect"Chinese female’s survival predicament","their free choice in existence predicament" and"modern people’s spiritual alienation and salvation ", reveal the deep and rich human nature,sincere and deep emotion and thus shock readers all over the world time and time again. Byreading her works, people can think about the depth of life and explore the true meaning ofliving in the fate of ups and downs.Existential philosophy is a kind of human existence, a kind of self-existence, and thepersonal presence and existence of a volitional action subject, in the process of which theexistence of the spirit and consciousness of self-denial are surmounting constantly thecomfortable existence, guide human being themselves in practice to choose freely, andsurpass oneself finally. At the same time, the true self and self-nature are gained through theprocess of self-responsibility.This paper uses the texts of Amy Tan’s three representative works---The Joy Luck Club,The Kitchen God’s Wife and Saving Fish from Drowning---as the research object, trying tofind out the "existence" value and its significance in them by exploring the deep structurefrom the perspective of existentialism on the basis of close text reading.In addition to the introduction and the conclusion, this thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One mainly introduces Amy Tan’s life and works, clarifies the content and the theme,domestic and foreign research on Amy Tan’s novels, and puts forward the perspective ofexistential theory. Chapter Two reviews the origin of Existentialism and the relation betweenFrench existentialist master Sutter and Existentialism, and expounds several main points ofSutter’s Existentialism. Chapter Three makes an in-depth analysis of Existentialism (view ofexistence) in Amy Tan’s maiden work, The Joy Luck Club. Differences in mother’s anddaughter’s survival plights exist because of their different attitudes toward life, leading todifferent value search paths as well. Chapter Four examines the theme of Existentialism (freeview) in The Kitchen God’s Wife. Facing the absurd world, sufferings and conflicts in life, theprotagonist shows his courage and responsibility, from which we know that the destiny should be in our own hands and only by being responsible for our own free choice can we shape ourfuture. Chapter Five discusses existentialism theme---the human nature alienation---impliedin her novel Saving Fish from Drowning. Mental alienation of modern people living in theupper class of America results in alienation between real self and ideal self. Lack of love andspiritual confusion make them perplexed. Therefore, they are looking for their self-salvationin dilemma.