Nothingness And Absurdity In The Floating Opera

Contemporary American writer John Barth·s novel The Floating Opera (1956)describes individual·s existence in this hostile and unknown world, illustrates thenothingness and absurdity of life and existence, and reveals that modern people losetheir interest in life and show their disregard for themselves and everything around.The novel demonstrates how individuals should take their inevitable natural situationto ensure their unique existence when they lose their faith in life and have no spiritualrefuge.In this novel, the protagonist Todd Andrew·s planned to commit suicide andfinally gave it up. This process shows that the unfulfilled condition of existencereveals the empty survival situation. The twisted, casual and unscrupulous loverelationship is the result of personality flaw without emotional responsibility. Inaddition, the empty nothingness mainly embodies in physical love, faithless life andseparation from mainstream society. The protagonist Todd cannot find interest in andsignificance of life and work when his professional dream of maintaining the justiceand order of society becomes disillusioned. So in such a misshapen social background,psychic numbing and pain will finally paralyze life. Facing the collapse of the rationalworld, death becomes a way of self-defense. In this novel, his father·s committingsuicide because of money has been a torture for Todd, leading to his own planning tocommit suicide by blowing up a ship called floating operaμ to kill more people. Hekeeps asking the reason for living or suicide. These experiences make Todd lose hisfaith in life, the freedom to choose and possible consequences and responsibilities ofchoice, clearly illustrating the futility of escape. There is no final reason forcommitting suicide or being alive. By describing the inevitable death in life, the noveldisplays modern people·s confusion and puzzlement caused by their livingenvironment.The inevitable contradiction, alienation and conflict in people·s existence lead toabsurdity. The war has completely smashed Todd·s faith in life, leaving only aridiculous and absurd existence of life. As a lawyer, the protagonist Todd finds thatthe judicial systems, which ought to be dedicated to social fairness, become theshelter for darkness and safeguard the interests of the privileged group. Therefore, theprinciple of the protagonist·s life turns into uncertain and ever-changing. Todd hasdesigned different masks for himself, so different levels of divided self make the living condition of the whole world ridiculous. The experiences of the characters inthe novel demonstrate that people are trapped in the irreconcilable contradictions oflife. They desperately try to seek relief, but finally fail to get rid of the entanglementof life, succumbing to the mighty power without spiritual refuge.This novel not only conveys nothingness and absurdity in its content, but also inits representation. In the novel, life can be compared to a floating ship, and the novelitself can be the play performed on the ship. The fractured and inconsistent ways ofexpression explore the fragments and uncertainty. In the development of the text, anuncertain narrative voice is used to blind narration, in order to arouse the readers·suspicion and create a complex text world. The combination of narration andrecollection is a disguise of the inner self and the reality to protect the true self. Thenarrative world and the retrospective world become inter-connected, and thus expressthe protagonist·s uncertain view of world. This nihilistic and absurd narrative isactually the result of modern people·s ridiculous and empty thinking mode.The novel demonstrates that modern people who have experienced two worldwars become suspicious of the rationality and social progress in this unbalancedsociety. The people in the post-modern society are emotionally cold, without spiritualrefuge. The deformation of various social values makes people lose interest and faithin life. The nothingness and absurdity hidden in their inner soul force them to makechoices. The ignorance and indifference to everything in life reflect the collapse ofrationality and spiritual order in post-modern society.