An Analysis Of Freedom From The Perspective Of Foucault’s Power Theory

Jonathan Franzen(1959-), a famous contemporary novelist and essayist in American, published Freedom in 2010, which caused concern in American literature and earned for Franzen the title of “Great American Novelist” on the cover of Time Magazine. Freedom is also called ‘A Big Ambitious Novel of Realism’ because the novel almost involves all areas of the whole society. Freedom is about the life experience of a middle class family in America. Each person in the story has his or her own misery and confusion and tries to seek the meaning of life and a life-style of freedom. The analysis of this paper mainly about the heroine Patty’s growth story explores the root of her inner plight and the way to achieve freedom.This paper analyzes Patty’s life experience from girlhood to middle age based on Foucault’s disciplinary power theory. Patty was trained to be an obedient and tame person under the disciplinary power from family and society, which caused her serious lack of body freedom and sexual freedom. Where there is disciplined power, there is resistance. The partial resistance theory develops from the operating mechanism of disciplinary power. To escape from the power net and seek personal freedom, Patty began to rebel against the life like a prisoner whose body and sexuality were both disciplined. With continual introspection, Patty cared herself increasingly. Gradually she came to realize the truth that she had to abandon the regulated life and traditional marriage values to break through her spiritual predicament and to discover her own self-value. Having overcome the challenges inherent, she eventually became her own master and achieved her spiritual freedom. Patty’s journey to freedom gave a fully explanation of Foucault’s theories, Disciplined power, Local resistance and the Aesthetics of Existence.The aim of the dissertation is to reveal the fact that the whole modern society is unconsciously manipulated by the authority and tries to find a way to solve the problem of confused modern people.