An Archetypal Study Of The Lonely Londoners

Samuel Selvon,also Sam Selvon,is a renowned novelist born in Trinidad,Caribbean.His experience of migration has provided him with ample sources of writing materials.His masterpiece,The Lonely Londoners,depicts the marginalized and alienated life of enthusiastic West Indian immigrants in London after the Second World War.As “colored”people,they were excluded from the mainstream culture and suffered from hostility and discrimination;as working-class people,they suffered from adversities in life,and could only join forces for warmth.Throughout the studies at home and abroad,scholars mainly focus on studying “the identity of colored immigrants”.Some also interpret the construction of the city in the novel and analyze its effects on daily life,social,and cultural issues,and the operation of power mechanisms within the space.However,few scholars have investigated the origin of the name “Moses”,explored the nexus,and explicated adaptation and reconstruction of the work from an archetypal point of view.In essence,the name “Moses” derives from the Exodus,Bible.Furthermore,both Moses in the novel and Prophet Moses in Exodus have led their ethnic groups in search of a place of belonging on the alien land.This homogeneity suggests an underlying rapport between The Lonely Londoners and Exodus.The greatest artists never reproduce a perfect form,but rather consider it as a negative truth to demonstrate long-standing sufferings in daily life.It was Selvon who has transformed the perfect image of the Prophet Moses,molding Moses Aloetto as a round figure,who has comparable qualities and contradictory styles with the former.Besides,his heterogeneous character suggests the harsh living conditions and thus criticizes the cruelty of social reality.Based on Northrop Frye’s theories of archetypal criticism,this study elucidates the novel from three aspects,archetypal character,ritual,and scenes,to expound the accordance and imparity between the novel and the biblical classic.The thesis explores how Selvon drew on the classic Exodus to compose his masterpiece and aims to supply a new perspective of interpretation.The innovation lies in the comparison of two works and the demonstration of full pictures in the novel by analyzing the origin and transformation of the heterogeneous “others”.