A Study Of Alienation In Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout is one of the most famous contemporary woman writers in America,and she has written many novels in her life.In 2008,Strout published Olive Kitteridge,which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Premio Bancarella Award.In addition,it was also a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award and later became a New York Times bestseller.Later,Olive Kitteridge was adapted into TV series by HBO and won 13 nominations for the 67 th Emmy Award.Olive Kitteridge is undoubtedly a very successful novel.However,there are not many studies and researches on this novel both at home and abroad.Most of the existing studies and researches focus on perspectives of feminism,absurdism and psychoanalysis.Strout is specialized in depicting ordinary people with more or less indifference,alienation and loneliness in ordinary towns.Therefore,this thesis uses Fromm's alienation theory to interpret the phenomenon of alienation from four aspects in Olive Kitteridge.The thesis is divided into three parts: introduction,the main body and conclusion.The introduction part outlines the life of Elizabeth Strout and all her works,and summarizes the researches on Olive Kitteridge at home and abroad.Then the introduction part shows the significance of the analysis of alienation in Olive Kitteridge.Finally,it gives a brief introduction to Erich Fromm and alienation theory.The body part consists of four chapters.The first chapter interprets the alienated love,which firstly can be shown by idolatrous love.In idolatrous love,one worships the loved one as an ‘idol' and becomes part of the one he loves,so that he loses himself in love and becomes an idolatrous worshipper.In the second place,the alienated love in the novel can be illustrated through extramarital affairs,which are mainly caused by the inability of communication after marriage,the dissatisfaction within marriage life and the temptation of sexual desire.The second chapter lays stress on the alienation in parent-child relations,which can be reflected in the novel in three aspects.Firstly,the suicide of the previous generation has caused severe trauma to children.When these children grow up,they become mentally disturbed or have character defects,or they even want to commit suicide.Meanwhile,the alienated relations can also be shown through the overwhelming authority over children in the novel.The excessive parental control over children's life lead to their incomplete personality and mental illness.Furthermore,the alienation between parents and children also leads to matriarchal and patriarchal complex.During the process of growth,it is difficult for some children to get rid of the mother and father figures.As a result,they not only want to break away from the power of their parents,but also want to marry a person who is similar to their parents' image and personality.What's more,patriarchal complex will lead to children's excessive self-repression and submission,while children with matriarchal complex are too attached to others to live a sane life.The third chapter deals with the alienation in townspeople,which is caused by mechanical life,estrangement from others and the uncertainty of self-identity.The monotonous life leads to the numbness and aloofness of townspeople who just repeat their daily life like a machine.In addition,people in this small town are indifferent to others.What's more,some of them even estrange themselves from others.As a result,they live in isolation and become somewhat hermits.The fourth chapter focuses on the ways to sane life.One is the productive love,which is the most fundamental necessity for individual and essential requirement for the way to sane life.What's more,man needs a frame of orientation to define his identity.To satisfy the need of a frame of orientation,one should see the world objectively and get in touch with the world with passion.What's more,to live a sane life,man needs to relate to others to get rid of his loneliness and depression.Conclusion part summarizes the alienation phenomenon in Olive Kittridge and points out the significance of the study.Through the study of the alienation,the novel can be understood from a new perspective.In addition,the alienation in the novel is also the epitome of the alienation in the real world,reflecting the alienation phenomenon which exists among people universally.And the analysis of the ways to sane life is conducive to getting rid of the alienation among people.