Midlife Crisis And Failure For Reconstruction-Bowling’s Identity Predicament In Orwell’s Coming Up For Air

George Orwell whose writing career lasts almost twenty years is one of the most important writers in the 20th century literary world. Coming Up for Air is a transitional work which reflects the turmoil together with the big changes between the First World War and the Second World War and shows Orwell’s maturing creative skills.Previous researches on George Orwell are mainly focused on his Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, while few scholars focus their attention on his transitional work Coming Up for Air. Even studies on Coming Up for Air are only focused on the theme of ecological environment as well as totalitarianism, while the protagonist’s identity construction draws little attention. For the lack of studies from the perspective of identity building in Coming Up for Air previously,this thesis aims at analyzing the protagonist’s identity predicament, based on Identity Theory, trying to further extend our reading and expand the studying of the novel from a new perspective. Before the analysis, a brief introduction is given to Coming Up for Air and literature review. Then, this thesis explores Bowling’s identity crisis and the process of the failure of nostalgic strategy for reconstruction. Finally, after pointing out the causes for Bowling’s identity crises including midlife crisis as well as inadaptability to changes, this thesis stresses the importance of the consciousness of self-identity construction and emphasizes the ability of self-adjustment, helping the readers understand the importance of identity construction for an individual. Moreover, the readers can better understand how to handle the relationship with others, how to react and adapt to social changes.