Survival Allegory Of Modern Individuals

Philip Roth (1933-) is one of the most influential writers in contemporary America and an important pillar of the American Jewish literature. For nearly half a century, his creation was dominated by "alienation." The Breast, The Professor of Desire and The Dying Animal-these three books consist Desire Trilogy, and the theme of alienation thus expressed is representative. Based on a detailed text study, this paper combines the alienation theory, the mirror-image theory and the psychological analysis, attempting to analyze the theme of alienation expressed in Desire Trilogy and to seek approaches to get rid of alienation.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this essay an be divided into four parts. Chapter One mainly illustrates the alienation manifestation in the Desire Trilogy. Chapter Two of this paper discusses crisis of alienation of Professor Kepesh. First, the self-alienation of Kepesh cannot be separated from his own factors. Second, Kepesh adopts the original desire to satisfy humans as a weapon against Jewish ethics and tries to get rid of shackles of religious ethics. However, the Jewish nature is deeply rooted in his bone and flesh. He always regrets about what he has done. The dilemma perplexes Kepesh all the time and becomes a cause of his self-alienation. At last, the contradiction between the Jewish culture and the American prevailing culture leads to Kepesh’s problems with his identity recognition. Kepesh has been in a split status inside his heart. He is full of apprehensions about his Jewish identity, and cannot get recognition from the mainstream American society. The status results in his loss of sense of belonging in terms of his spirit and emotion, and leads to his alienation. Chapter Three takes David Kepesh for example and explores the possibility of getting rid of alienation. Through enhancing the will of survival, reshaping his spiritual world and establishing his identity, Kepesh is highly likely to get out from the dilemma of alienation. Chapter Four explore characteristics of alienation writings by Roth.The theme of alienation expressed in Desire Trilogy by Roth is a forward-looking prediction of the alienation trend of humans in the contemporary society and shows Roth’s concern about the destiny of humans. With the continuous derivation of alienation, how to overcome alienation has become a shared issue of humans.