Living Predicament

As one of the most influential contemporary Jewish American writers,Philip Roth's novels mainly deal with Jewish identity,American dream,the conflicts between modern and traditional morality and erotic love.In 2000,Roth finished the last one of “American Trilogy”: The Human Stain.This novel narrates a story of a light-skinned black man Coleman Silk.He chooses to abandon his racial identity,passing for Jewish people and leading to his final tragedy.It is closely related to race and black identity,profoundly revealing hidden social problems.There have been numerous researches on The Human Stain.However,few people explore the alienation theme in this novel.Fromm states there is serious alienation in contemporary society.This article tries to disclose self-alienation,alienation in interpersonal relationship and alienation of society through Fromm's alienation theory.Through revealing widespread alienation phenomenon,it will further discuss the living predicament of characters in this novel.In addition to introduction and conclusion,there are three chapters in the main body.Chapter one analyzes self-alienation in this novel,including Coleman's racial passing,Lester's twisted character,Delphine's surviving dilemma and Faunia's demeaning life.Alienated people lose contact with himself and other people.He feels that he has lost the creative contact with society,becoming depressed and powerless.Chapter two focuses on alienation in interpersonal relationship in this novel,consisting of alienation in family and love and alienation of other people.Alienation exists not only in oneself,but also among people.The relationship between characters in novel is distorted due to complicated interests.Chapter three argues alienation of society in novel covering political and ethnic alienation and discusses the impact of morbid world.