From Zero To Hero: An Analysis Of Quoyle’s Journey In The Shipping News From The Perspective Of Bildungsroman

Annie Proulx is one of the most influential writers in contemporary America. Her workshas received widespread concern since the publication of her second novel The Shipping Newsin1993. That year, The Shipping News was the winner of National Book Award. And it wonthe Pulitzer Prize for Fiction a year later. The Shipping News depicts the rebirth of amiddle-aged loser Quoyle who works as a third-rate reporter at the local newspaper office.Ugly and dull, he has never been approved his entire life. All of a sudden, he loses everything.After the collapse of life and marriage, he returned to his ancestral home Newfoundland underthe guidance of his aunt. His journey of life has started ever since. There he has someprofound reflection on life and takes effective action on the reconciliation. Gradually, hebecomes self-confident and brave from the great success of his career and beautiful love.Lukacs believes whether aesthetically or historico-philosophically, Bildungsroman is asynthesis of Romanticism of disillusionment and abstract Idealism. Contemplation here refersto the reflection of the protagonist when he was receptive towards the real world. Activityrefers to the action taken by the protagonist when he is moulding the world. In Bildungsroman,the protagonist is required to keep the balance between reflection and action. That is to say,the protagonist needs to keep the balance between accepting and changing the real world.Thus, the theme of Bildungsroman is “the reconciliation of the problematic individual, guidedby his lived experience of the ideal, with concrete social reality”.Eventually, Quoyle realizes the reconciliation between the expectation toward mouldingthe world and the acceptance to the real world. The reconciliation is his journey of growingfrom zero to hero. The study of the novel has been chiefly concentrating on Regionalism,Ecocriticism, Feminism etc. The author attempts to interpret the life journey of the protagonistQuoyle in The Shipping News featuring the “contemplation and activity” posed by GeorgLukacs from the perspective of Bildungsroman.