Lostness,Predicament And Renewal

Cynthia Ozick（1928-）is a well-known contemporary American Jewish writer with distinct Jewishness in her works.As her latest novel,Foreign Bodies is set in America and Europe in the mid-20^th century.It told a story that the Jewish Nachtigalls who lose their traditional ethics in American dominant culture,but restored their Jewishness in Europe after the Second World War,and then finally returned to America.The author captures the life of American Jews in contemporary society with an extremely keen insight.In Foreign Bodies,the lostness and existence predicament of the characters who are trapped in the cultural conflicts are revealed through her delicate writing.At the same time,the depressed and horrible social environment in America and Europe due to anti-Semitism is skillfully presented in the novel.Based on the theories about American multiculture put forward by Milton M.Gordon and John Higham,this thesis concentrates on the loss of Jewishness,existent predicament,and renewal of one’s life,conducting a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the conflicts between American mainstream culture and Jewish culture,so as to explore the religious crisis,existent predicament,and way of getting redemption of American Jews who live in a Gentile society.The main characters in Foreign Bodies,including Marvin,Bea and Julian,who get lost in cultural conflicts,are much more likely to fall into a series of mess and dilemma.In the huge assimilation movement,as members of American Jews,Marvin and Bea sufficiently absorb American dominant values and their adherence to Judaism and Jewish traditional values reduce to the so-called“symbolic Judaism”;what’s worse,they even betray Jewish covenant of anti-idolatry.The characters fall into the predicament of being alienated and marginalized by western society on account of the ingrained anti-Semitism in western culture;their family ties are broken due to the loss of Jewish traditional ethics.After experiencing a lot of difficulties,the characters find that only way to get redemption is the restoration of Jewish ethics;meanwhile,the characters and many foreign Jews in Europe decided to embrace America,the new“promised land”full of freedom,equality and opportunities,and start a new life there.Through in-depth study,a conclusion is drawn that Foreign Bodies reflects the characters’miserable experience,reveals the crisis of religion faced by contemporary American Jews,and provides inspiration for people to face conflicts and realize self-renewal.Only through adherence to Jewish traditions and beliefs can one get out the predicament of cultural conflicts.