Choices In The Predicament-an Existentialist Reading Of Falconer

John Cheever is one of the prominent writers in the history of contemporary American literature. He is best known for short stories and his deep concern for the living predicament of the American middle class, which established his reputation as "the Chekhov of the suburb". His short stories have ranked among the finest achievements of twentieth-century short fiction and earned him servious praise from the viewers. However, the five novels produced in his later life are relatively ignored and less known to readers. Falconer, Cheever’s fourth novel, raised much repercussion when published in 1977. It is now generally considered as a masterpiece. It is a story about a man’s gruelling experience in Flaconer prison and his final escape from the prison by means of salvation and rebellion. The theme of the novel is about confinement and the struggle toward freedom. Based on previous researches, this paper intends to study the novel by adopting Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism.The basic theme of existentialism is absurdity. Existentialists hold that there is no meaning in the world beyond what meaning we give to it. It is absurdity that causes the sense of alienation from others, from society, even from oneself. But Jean-Paul Sartre also believes that in the world of absurdity, man is still able to keep his faith and has the absolute freedom to make "free choice", but he should take responsibilities over his choices.Those ideas of Sartre’s are very close to the theme of Falconer which exposes the absurd nature of confinement and its negative effect on the American society, and reveals people’s eagerness for freedom and self-discovery. This paper tries to apply Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism including the concepts of "absurdity", "alienation" and "free choice" to analyze the existential traits of the main characters in Falconer, in an attempt to find out the reasons why they are trapped in the absurd and get alienated as well as the significance that they make choices to counter the absurd and alienation.This paper consists of four chapters. The first chapter makes an overview on Sartre’s existentialist theories, particularly key principles like "existence precedes essence", "absurdity", "alienation" and "free choice", and points out Falconer’s existential tendency. The second chapter explores the theme of absurdity in the novel from two aspects, the living predicament and the absurd death, and the disintegration of traditional norms and ideals. The third chapter focuses on the alienation of the two main characters Farragut and Chicken Number Two. With regard to the protagonist Farragut, his alienation is manifested at three levels, from the social institutions, his original family and marriage. In the fourth chapter, it discusses the free choices made by the main characters in the struggle against absurdity and alienation. Farragut chose to emancipate himself from the predicament through love, rebellion and redemption. He transcended himself from degeneration to regeneration. Chicken Number Two, on the other hand, chose to compromise with the absurd confinement and gave up the pursuit for authentic self. He died in the prison and became the victim of confinement. The different choices made by the two characters and the consequences evince Cheever’s attitude towards the predicament of man’s life. They also accord with Sartre’s idea of "free choice" that man has the freedom to make choices but must assume the responsibilities for the possible consequences brought by his choices. The last part makes a summary of the existentialist themes embodied in Falconer and aims to help the readers have a clearer idea about the existential predicament that faces the modern man and concludes that it’s the struggle against the predicament and the rediscovery of the authentic self that make our life meaningful.