A Study Of Death In Philip Roth’s "American Trilogy"

American-Jewish writer--Philip Roth’s “American Trilogy” includes American Pastoral(1997),I Married a Communist(1998),and The Human Stain(2000).The three novels keep a certain consistency on theme which all express Americans’ lives and the terrible influence of wars on American.This thesis,taking Freud’s theory of “Eros” and “Thanatos” as the theoretical foundation,tries to analyze the topic of death in “American Trilogy”.Through describing death,Roth exposes something which can be divided into three parts.Death can free the burden of human nature.It is our nature to pursue sex and freedom.But,in this society advocating freedom,our nature is under repression and sex is abandoned.Confronting death,human nature will be displayed deeply.And,death expresses the paradox of people’s existence in this world filled with turbulence.In the so-called civilized society,barbarous things happen from time to time.People are often under the threat of death.Whether to choose to live in this world in disgrace or to choose to die in dignity becomes a serious problem.Except that,death has greater significance.Only when we experience death can we understand the value of life.Death is the inevitable part of our life,and life cannot be complete without it.Death follows the rule of nature which does not contend any emotions.On by way of death can we escape from the seduction of desires and step into the palace of immortality.By describing death,Roth seemingly expresses his despair to live in this world.Actually,he shows us his respect to death and his expectation for new life.