To Be Or Not To Be—An Interpretation Of Falling Man From The Perspective Of Sartrean Existentialism

Don Delillo is one of the most prominent writers in contemporary American literature.Don Delillo together with Thomas Pynchon,Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy are known as the four contemporary literary giants.Up to now,he has created 15 novels.And he has won many prestigious awards.Published in 2007,Falling Man is considered to be one of the most representative works of Don Delillo.Once being published,Falling Man has drawn wide attention from the academic field both at home and abroad.The studies on Falling Man are mainly from perspectives of narrative,trauma theory and postmodernism.This thesis makes a further analysis on Falling Man by adopting Sartrean existentialism.The studies on Falling Man from the angle of Sartrean existentialism are relatively small in number,which is the innovation of this thesis.Falling Man is thought to be a defining work of 9/11 fiction.The novel mainly describes an ordinary American family's mental problems such as anxiety and nothingness after 9/11 attacks.Falling Man presents the existential states of ordinary American people in the age of post-9/11.First,taking Sartrean existentialism as an entry point,this thesis analyzes the existential crises of some characters in Falling Man.These characters include survivors,witnesses,and a disaster maker.This thesis also analyzes the reasons for their existential crises.Their existential crises come from marriage,family,emotion and the mental problems mainly caused by 9/11 terrorist attacks.When facing the existential crises,they fall into the feelings of anxiety,sensitivity,fear and so on All of these negative feelings make their behaviors become more and more abnormal.And then the thesis analyzes the characters' freedom of choices to get rid of their existential crises.At last,the thesis concludes that Falling Man presents the aimlessness,anxiety and desperation of the ordinary American people after 9/11 terrorist attacks.But in the meanwhile,Faling Man brings a light of hope to the people who are struggling in the darkness and gives them a solace in spirit.By analyzing the victims' self-rebuilding,this thesis tries to explore the ways for the ordinary people who still suffer from existentialism crises.By analyzing the terrorist's existential crisis before the attacks,the thesis attempts to persuade people to forget past hatred and begin a new life.