Facing Loneliness And Creating Oneself

Cormac McCarthy is a famous novelist and dramatist of America. The publication of “The Border Trilogy” caused a stir in American writing field, laying the foundation of his master's status in modern literary world in America. Cities of the Plain as the last one of “The Border Trilogy”, is ideally the epitome of the whole work both in content and ideology.Cities of the Plain seems to tell a love story happening between the hero John Grady and the heroine Magdalena, but in effect, through the description about the existing experiences of the two protagonists and the shaping of their characteristics, it shows to the readers that how these two marginal persons who live in El Paso and Juarez city, seek for the meaning of existence through free choices on their own willings. Sartre's Existentialism states that everyone in society is existing as a lonely individual in an absurd world and therefore, he or she will be faced with many alienated relations and suffering from varieties of sorrows and pains. However, everyone is absolutely free when faced with difficulties and taking actions and he or she has to take the responsibilities and consequences for their free choices at the same time.Based on previous studies of other scholars at home and abroad and referring to certain theories of Sartre's Existentialism such as “Alienation”, “World is absurd and life is painful”, “Free choices” and so on, this thesis is intended to analyze the alienated relations and painful sufferings both John Grady and the heroine Magdalena are experiencing, explore how they embody their personality, take responsibilities and achieve self-creation and self-transcendence.