On The Continuation And Development Of Traditional Desert Island Literature In The Beach

The Beach was published in 1996 and became a film of the same title in 2000. It is the American writer Alex Garland’s first novel, and brought him great fame and recognition. Borrowing the fantastic adventure story plots from the traditional desert island fiction, this work conveys the theme of returning back to nature and exposes the ugly side of human nature. As the most important desert island novel in the new era, it obviously originated from the traditional desert island fiction. This novel has a narrative scene and plot structure associated with traditional desert island novels. It involves both the judging of human nature and an exploration of the relationship between man and nature. However, after in-depth study of the text, we will find that this novel differs sharply from such traditional desert island stories as Robinson Crusoe and Coral Island. The Beach, which will be put into the stream of traditional desert fiction in this paper, is developed from the traditional desert island fiction.The introductory chapter briefly introduces the development and writing characteristics of the traditional island literature and analyzes the particular background and present state of the research. The body of this paper is divided into four parts. The first chapter analyses the similarities in plot —— the 3 steps of plot, and reveals the new features of desert island fiction by an analysis of the “sudden turn” of plot and image narration in this novel. The second chapter firstly analyzes the tradition of writing human glory in traditional desert island fiction, then explores the description of evil in human nature, and finally demonstrates the development in character description. The third chapter explores the similarity in narrative space of these three aspects: alienation, idealization, and abstraction. Next, comparing with Robinson Crusoe, it analyzes the rebellion of linear narrative structure. Lastly, it discusses the unconventional parody in The Beach. The last chapter of the essay mainly explores the optimistic and rationalist tradition of traditional desert island fiction, and analyzes the protagonist Richard’s dilemma. On one hand, he wants to get rid of the shackles of modern civilization; and rebuild human spiritual home by means of returning back to nature. On the other hand he is not able to get rid of the material comforts in modern society. On this basis, the essay concluded:The Beach originates from the traditional desert island literature because of its narrative scene and plot structure. Desert island novelists want to solve the problems people of this era faced by means of returning back to nature, but the collapse of the dream on “the beach” implies the modern desert island novelists question whether or not humans can live harmony with nature.