The Study Of Thomas Wolfe's Novels From The Perspective Of City And Country

Thomas Clayton Wolfe(1900-1938)was one of the important American writers in the 20 th century.His four novels describe the changes in the United States and even the world in the early 20 th century,covering economy,politics,culture and other fields.Researchers are always discussing his works mainly from the themes,characters and artistic characteristics,thus living studies on city and country areas obvious short.It is of epoch-making significance to study the works under the background of urbanization from the perspective of city and country areas.By doing so,city and country spaces can be analyzed separately to explore the relationship between them and the spiritual pursuit in their expectation.This article consists of three parts,introduction,three chapters and conclusion.The introduction firstly introduces Thomas Wolfe's life and creative experience.Secondly,it sorts out the research on Wolfe himself and his works at home and abroad,and then points out the shortcomings of research on the perspective of "City and Country".Finally,it presents the significance of studying in Wolfe's works in the background of the city and country.The first chapter focuses on the city world in Wolfe's works.The city world is divided into two parts,“Hopeful City” and “Lost City”.The environment and people in the “Hopeful City” are described separately.In the description of the city environment it mainly analyzes the prosperity of city life and representative buildings.When analyzing the characters,it mainly analyzes the chasers and occupants of city space.The same method is used to analyze the environment and people separately in the “Lost City”.Under the title of "Gray City",this paper discusses the features of roads under urbanization including hardening,homogeneity and fragmentation.In the analysis of the characters,it mainly analyzes "lion hunter","empty man" and "wanderer".The second chapter mainly analyzes the country world in the text.The country world is divided into two parts,namely “Sentient Country” and “Web Country”.In the "Sentient Country",it mainly discusses the "homeland feeling" and poetry of thecountry and then puts forward the concept of "home-keepers" and "home-seekers".And the disharmonious living environment and ignorant atmosphere are analyzed in the "Web Country".On this basis,this paper analyzes the people who are trapped in the country : the blacks and the public suffered from capitalist alienation.The third chapter mainly discusses the spiritual pursuit of mutual expectation between city and country areas.It analyzes the ideal city image under the viewpoint of country and the ideal country space under the viewpoint of city respectively.On this basis,the essential reasons of the mutual expectation between city and country are explored.The ideal types of cities are: New York,as a place of heroic fantasy,Paris,representing the pursuit of beauty,Munich,symbolizing freedom and carnival.Similarly,the country also carries different ideals: the real place of origin,the Garden of Eden of love and the shelter of kinship.Finally,this chapter breaks the binary opposition between city and country,reveal the lack of of human spirit under the appearance of of city and country mutual observation,and then sublimates the end,puts forward the prospect of habitat and transcendence.The conclusion part summarizes the development process of the four novels,affirms the value of Wolfe's works,and reiterates the significance of the study of his works in the perspective of city and country.