| William Faulkner was one of the most influential American writers in the 20th century and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949.Faulkner is concerned with people and the interaction between people of different races.Most of his works involve the living conditions of black people suffering racial discrimination in America.One of his greatest contributions is the construction of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County,where stories of Light in August happened.Light in August consists of two main lines of development,and one of them is mainly about Joe Christmas,an orphan of white skin with some black blood.The other story line is related to the unmarried woman Lena Grove,who bravely started her journey to find her lover so as to be with him when the baby was born.The novel is well-narrated by different characters as the main characters' fate develops dramatically,which provides a thought-provoking perspective in choosing freely faced with alienation.Chapter one mainly introduces Faulkner's great achievements and the research status of Light in August both in China and abroad.Chapter two discusses the origin and development of alienation theory,as well as Sartre's interpretation of alienation.Sartre emphasizes that alienation originates from scarcity in material and spirit,which accounts for the tragedies of characters in the novel.Combined with Sartre's alienation theory,chapter three explores the alienation symptoms of Christmas,Hightower and Lena,which shows that different people suffer from alienation in different ways,such as familial alienation,racial alienation,religious alienation and gender alienation.Chapter four analyzes the causes of alienation,emphasizing that scarcity in belief and absurdity of the world are the barriers to freedom and establishment of personality.Chapter five focuses on different behaviors of characters in face of alienation,and pointed out that choosing freely is an effective way to overcome alienation.Based on Sartre's interpretation of alienation,this thesis analyzes the symptoms and causes of alienation in the novel and reveals that alienation is inevitable in a society of material scarcity.Only by building a free and harmonious society can we promote the comprehensive development of human beings so as to avoid alienated tragedies.This thesis not only aims to contribute to researches on Faulkner's novels in China,but also provides reference for solving the problems of alienation in modern society. |
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