| Edward Paul Jones is a contemporary African American writer who has achieved great success in assessing the black slave history after Toni Morrison.His masterpiece The Known World has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and National Award in 2004.It explores the social status and reexamines the real conditions of the black slavery comprehensively,in which everything seems safe and solid superficially,but there exists crisis and instability.What's more,Jones questions and challenges the authority and authenticity of the written black slavery history.Since it was published,it has attracted the great attention of scholars home and abroad.From the perspective of Sartrean existentialism,this analysis elaborates the absurdity of the rare phenomenon of black slave owners,the nihility of life of both the black and the white,and the alienated relationships among the black in detail.Living in the absurd Manchester County,the black slaves are astonished to acknowledge that their master is a black.What's more,the black slave owners fall into a self-deception of gaining power,and they end up being isolated and estranged from themselves and also from his race.The absurd world and misearable life drive the protagonists to take action and make a difference.Some choose to run away from slavery for freedom while others choose to stay trapped in slavery for power or love.All protagnists have made their chioces and take their corresponding responsiblities.Based on the above-mentioned illustration,the thesis reexamines the slave history through the following five concepts of Satrean existentialism: absurdity,nihility,alienation,free choices and responsibilities.These concepts greatly enhances the value of The Known World.The study demonstrates that the misery and alienation that the protagonists suffer from propel them to make free choices and take responsibilities.Moreover,the destiny of the black depends on their free choices instead of being controlled by the white. |
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