| Contemporary American writer Jonathan Franzen's novel The Corrections describes the Lamberts' frustrated experie nce in dealing with their crisis of self- identity and mutual contradictions, illustrate s conflicts between traditional Protestant Ethic and modern Consumerism in aspect of life values, moral codes, familial values and work ethic. The novel reveals the crisis of self- identity in individual and society. The paper demonstrates that under the existing capitalist system, the self-redemption adopted in the course of returning to traditional values and lifestyles cannot be regarded as a way of solving self-identity crisis.With the help of Baudrillard's Cultural Theory of Consumer Society, this thesis finds that transcendental faith ha s been abandoned by people, and people's lifestyles and value systems also gets changed, a consequence caused by Mass Culture which uses mass media to spread its recreational, vulgar and fantasy contents. Thus, Consumerism inevitably collides with Protestant Ethic. As the guardian of Protestant Ethic, Alfred Lambert measures his self- value in works and sticks to Asceticism in materialistic and orectic society. Controlled by Consumerism, other members of the Lamberts run counter to repel principles of Protestant Ethic, pursue desire and enjoyment and build their self-identity based on the value of commodities.Conflicts between Consumerism and Protestant Ethic are reflected in many aspects of the Lamberts' life. In life values, Gary, the elder son and a banker, disintegrates Alfred's spiritual belief by using material interests. Consumption ideology that individual is supposed to pursuit endless desires has replaced Protestant Ethic's life value of industry and self-restrain. Gary loses himself in property and money and has been alienated into a slave of commodities. And Enid also degenerates into a consumer and loses her self-awareness in the spiritual illusion of Consumerism. The rigorous Ascetic ethic has been discarded and hedonist lifestyle displaces traditional Protestant living habits. In moral codes, the Lamberts' moral values begin to be away from traditional moralities, resulting in that their belief, dream and pursuit are mingled with personal interests. As a result, Chip's purely scholarly criticism loses its effectiveness. As people are encouraged to deeply find every possible way to meet their satisfaction, Chip can hardly survive in the torment of money, loses his self- identity in Consumerism, and eventually experiences a transformation from a scholar who criticized Consumerism into a rectifier. As for work ethic, in consumer cultural atmosphere, people ha ve lost the ability to think of their value and existence. As a chief, Denise devotes herself to study various cooking styles and cuisines. However, consumerist work ethic believes that work is dominated by consumption, while Protestant work ethic stresses thrifty and hard working. Consumerist work ethic contrast with Protestant work ethic, a consequence is that hard work is unable to satisfy the desires of consumers or generate perfection of desire. Consumers flock to Denise's restaurant just due to recommendations from mass media on its architecture and lights as well as Denise's beauty rather than her cooking. This indicates that work has already lost its religious significance, and Carpe Diem and Materialism are the belief that people believe in. Finally, in familial values, in Consumer society, people have got rid of the control of society and status. Denise, the hostess of the Lamberts, gets higher family status and has more power due to her accumulation of wealth. Money or property has become the criterion of judging people's family and social status. Stable and decent traditional family mode is subverted by mobile and materialistic modern family mode.Trough exposing the corruption of individual's self- identity both physically and mentally, the novel demonstrates that the old value system has been destroyed but the new one has not been established. The overflow of Consumerism has toppled traditional American social morality and values, led to the spiritual crisis of both American people and society. The death of Alfred means that Consumerism has ruined traditional Protestant Ethic which provides American with moral foundations. After experiencing a revolt and loss of self- identity, the characters return back to St. Jude and try to rebuild their self- identity through picking back up traditional values. However, they are doomed to fail, because the relationship between human and commodities have been subverted by highly commercialized mode of society operation in Consumer society, and individuals have thoroughly lost their self-identity. |
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