Absurdity,Alienation,and Free Choice

Celeste Ng(1980-)is an emerging Chinese-American writer whose latest book,Little Fires Everywhere,was published in 2017,following her debut novel Everything I Never Told You.The book won the 2017 US Book Store Novel of the Year award upon publication and won 27 Book of the Year awards.Little Fires Everywhere starts with a flashback to the fire at the Richardson house in Shaker Heights and focuses on the lives of the Richardson families and Mia and her daughter Pearl,interspersed with events such as the adoption of Mrs.Mc Cullough and Babe and Mrs.Richardson’s investigation into Mia’s secrets.As the story develops,the relationships between the different characters become more complex,and conflicts and contradictions emerge.In the end,the departure of Mia and Pearl and a fire at the Richardson’s house conclude the story here.In Sartre’s view,the world is absurd and life is painful.In this absurd world,the existence of everything is accidental.People cannot fully control their lives,and it’s also hard for them to live an ideal life.Besides,people will have a state of alienation while pursuing freedom and their ideal lives,which can be divided into three types: self-alienation,alienation between man and man,and alienation between man and society.The alienated state mainly manifests in the inability to control their own actions,the deterioration of their basic relationships with others,and the loss of themselves in society.In addition,although people cannot eliminate the limitations of objective factors,they still have absolute freedom to choose their own lifestyle and face dilemmas in life through positive choices and actions to achieve redemption.Based on a literature review both at home and abroad,this thesis analyzes the living status of the different characters in Little Fires Everywhere from three perspectives: the absurd world,alienation,and free choice.Specifically,this thesis analyses the absurdity of the world from two perspectives: uncontrollable life and undesirable life;the alienated status of people in the absurd world from three perspectives: self-alienation,the alienation between man and man,and the alienation between man and society;and the free choice of people to face dilemmas and to achieve redemption,aiming to lead people to respect the life choices of different people,have a positive attitude towards life,take their each life choice seriously,and take responsibilities for their own lives.