Road To Freedom

Taking Alan Sillitoe’s first novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning as a case, this thesis aims to make a more systematic exploration of the dilemma caught by the young men from the working class in pursuing freedom in the1950s in Britain and to explore practicable approaches to the pursuit of their "positive freedom".Specifically, based on a detailed study of the protagonist Arthur’s spiritual evolution, and from the perspective of Erich Fromm’s psychoanalytic theory of freedom, the present thesis attempts to analyze the freedom quested by the "Angry Young Men" represented by Arthur, the protagonist of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. At first it analyzes Arthur’s rebellious behavior and loose life on his road to pursue radical freedom—"negative freedom" and the alienation that goes with his freedom. Then it probes into the roots of his anti-traditional values and the distorted sense of freedom. At this stage the thesis firstly explores the essence of Arthur’s problematical attempts to achieve freedom which includes Arthur’s rebellion against social institutions and traditional morality. Then the thesis explains the possible reasons for Arthur’s pursuit of radical freedom, namely, the social forces of the society, the working class’s stress as well as Arthur’s insane personality.Based on the above analysis we can conclude that "negative freedom"—the radical stance on freedom which Arthur has advocated and practiced only generates emptiness, loneliness and alienation instead of ease and enjoyment. Therefore, any freedom achieved by freeing oneself from burdens and connections with others is "negative freedom". Different from "negative freedom","positive freedom" can bring a sense of true self and a sense of belongings. Only by returning to the real world and establishing harmonious human connections by love as well as being responsible to oneself and others can people of the modern era set foot on the road to true freedom.