A Study Of The End Of The Road From The Perspective Of Alienation Theory

The End of the Road is John Barth’s second novel, first published in1958, with the revised edition in1967. Barth himself achieved the alienated artistic effect of the novel through the creation of writing style and experiment of writing techniques. The novel clearly shows the potential harm of free choice, probing into dilemma and frustration of human existence by nihilism. The End of the Road is also the first novel that brought abortion to the focus of public attention, which proves to be a huge success,This thesis intends to study the alienation in The End of the Road based on the alienation as a literary style and the alienation embodied in the literary context. Through the analysis of the alienated plot, the alienated theme and the alienated characterization, the thesis aims to fully display alienation embodied in The End of the Road and emphasize the internal cause for the end of the different character’s road. Finally, a conclusion is drawn from the arguments that both man and woman are suffering a form of social alienation in their respective social and cultural roles.