On The Crisis Of Masculinity In Don De Lillo’s Falling Man

Don DeLillo’s Falling Man(2007) is seen as the best one among numerous 9/11 novels.In this novel, DeLillo reveals the great loss and physical and psychological trauma caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks by concentrating on the life and psychological experience of the common people. Therefore, the researches on the novel concentrate mainly on trauma. Based on Connell’s masculinity theory, this thesis intends to explore the crisis of masculinity in contemporary American society through discussing the main male characters in Falling Man.The body part of the thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter focuses on Keith’s failures of family responsibility as a father and a husband. In Falling Man, DeLillo declines the great image of fathers after the 9/11 attacks. The absence of fatherhood and the loss of responsibility of husbands make men unable to own real masculinity. Therefore, males must be in the crisis and anxiety of male identity. The second chapter illustrates Keith’s and Falling Man’s losses of responsibility to society. The crisis of family identity makes the men become more desperate. As a member of society, they don’t shoulder the responsibility that they should do. On the contrary, females have the courage to take on the correspondent social responsibility. Compared with it, males’ social responsibility consciousness besets with crises.The third chapter explores Keith’s incapability to rebuild masculinity. After the tremendous impact of 9/11 terrorist attacks, males suffer great psychological trauma and puzzle. Finally,they fail to live up to the standards expected by a wounded society that has retreated into the safety of a nostalgic past. This speculation is DeLillo’s reaction to the American masculinity crisis and the feminization of American culture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.In conclusion, this thesis argues that men are experiencing a contemporary crisis of masculinity due to the tremendous impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Just as the title of the novel implies, “Falling Man”, the male characters are falling and their masculinities are declining. DeLillo shows that after the heavy crash of the 9/11 catastrophe, America is full of crises and horror and is not the United States that people look forward to.