An Interpretation Of Spiritual Wasteland In Moth Smoke From The Perspective Of Consumerism

Mohsin Hamid(1975-),a Pakistani British novelist,is a promising writer in the contemporary literature world,and most of his works focus on the realistic issues of today's society and show his profound humanistic concern.Hamid's first novel Moth Smoke(2000)has gained a good reputation,home and abroad,since it was published.However,previous scholars' studies on Hamid's works are primarily concerned with his second novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist(2007),and there are only a few studies on Moth Smoke.Therefore,this thesis explores the theme of spiritual wasteland in Moth Smoke from the perspective of consumerism,and aims to reveal the destructive impact of the consumer society on people's spiritual worlds.The thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter One consists of a brief introduction to Mohsin Hamid and Moth Smoke,the literature review of this novel,theoretical framework centered with sign consumption,conspicuous consumption and the reification theory and the thesis statement.Chapter Two mainly interprets the characters' spiritual emptiness reflected in the sign consumption consciousness,which ultimately leads the characters to indulge in the pursuit of the symbolic values of objects that symbolize one's identity,class and social status.Chapter Three aims to dissect the characters' spiritual loneliness reflected in the conspicuous consumption behaviour.The conspicuous consumption,leading to the loneliness of the characters' spiritual worlds,is advocated by the leisure class and becomes the consumption criterion,which breeds the idea of money supremacy and eventually alienates the relationship between friends and also family members.Chapter Four intends to uncover that spiritual numbness reflected in the phenomenon of reification is the most severe consequence of the alienation of consumption.The reification of female bodies and the social laws in this novel is the direct cause of the numbness in characters' spiritual worlds.Finally,the fifth chapter concludes the whole thesis and discloses that actively constructing rational consumption consciousness and consumption behaviour and keeping the balance between material and spiritual world are the effective ways for modern people to avoid spiritual wasteland.