英语本科毕业论文-《小王子》中的存在主义研究.doc

毕业设计(论文)课 题 名 称（英文） On Existentialism in The Little Prince （中文） 小王子中的存在主义研究 学 生 姓 名 学 号 系（院）、年级专业 外国语学院2013级英语专业 指 导 教 师 职 称 讲 师 2017年 5 月 18 日On Existentialism in The Little PrinceGrade 2013, School of Foreign Languages, Shaoyang UniversitySupervised by Yang ZhihaoAbstractThe fairy tale of The Little Prince is unique, timeless and a masterpiece. In this short fairy tale, the author changes the hale style as before and uses extraordinary imagination and superb artistic expression showing a dreamlike world to the reader. The whole work is full of poetry, sadness and loneliness. It tells us how to find the essence and significance of some experience in this loneliness, so as to achieve values in real life and to defend the spiritual home of mankind. Its value lies in the profound reflection on the human survival experience and significance.The Little Prince explored the meaning of life, the value of action, and the meaning of mind. And we can uncover rich existentialism thoughts and significance from this book. This paper illustrates the metaphysical exploration of The Little Prince, which shows some existential philosophizing, such as the existence of absurdity and loneliness, the free choice of nature, the sense of responsibility and looking for the relationship with others in action. In existentialism, the author reflects on the present situation of adults and adult world and thinks that indifference and estrangement nowadays are caused by adults loss of children innocence. Meanwhile, the work expresses the possibility that childishness will return to adults world one day.Key words: The Little Prince; existentialism; action; free choice; responsibility consciousness; essence.小王子中的存在主义研究唐蕾邵阳学院外国语学院2013级指导老师：杨志豪摘 要 法国作家圣埃克苏佩里的童话小王子是一部独一无二，历久弥新的不朽之著。在这篇短小的童话故事中，作者运用非凡的想象力，高超的艺术表现才能，向读者展示了一个梦幻又不失真实，浪漫又不乏质朴的世界。从整体上来看，小王子探索了人生的意义，行动的价值，以及责任和爱，其中蕴含着丰富的存在主义思想和意义。本文认为在形而上学的探讨上,小王子表现出了某些存在主义的哲思，比如荒谬与孤独的存在体验，本质的自由抉择，责任意识，和在行动中找寻与他人的关系。在这些存在主义的哲思中，作者反思了成人与成人世界的生存现状，认为正是由于成人早已遗失了儿童的童真特质，才造成了而今的冷漠与隔阂，但同时也表达了这种童真素质在成人世界中回归的可能。关键词：小王子；存在主义； 行动; 自由选择；责任意识; 本质ContentsAbstract.中文摘要.Introduction.11.The Little Prince12.The Existentialism22.1 Existence Precedes Essence22.2 Accidental Absurdity 22.3 Free choice 3 3. Interpretation of Philosophical Ideas of Existentialism in The Little Prince 33.1Existence and Experience33.2 Free Choice63.3 Love and Responsibility83.4 Essence in Action 10Conclusion 12Bibliography 13Acknowledgments14III邵阳学院毕业设计（论文）On Existentialism in The Little PrinceTang LeiGrade 2013, School of Foreign Language, Shaoyang UniversitySupervised by Yang ZhihaoIntroductionAs we all know, Zhou Guoping wrote a preface to The Little Prince. He said: “Books such as The Little Prince do not need a preface.” 20Mourois once said: “I would not attempt to explain the philosophy of The Little Prince, just as people would not interpret a cathedral or the starry sky. I will not be ignorant and arrogant to write a preface for the starry sky, and I am only to borrow this opportunity to express my love of the worship of this genius in Saint-Exupry once again.” 20 Different from other fairy tales of children literature, the imagination, wisdom and emotion of The Little Prince have attracted many readers of different ages. As the author said this book was written for the adult who had been a child. Both children and adults can get inspirations from this book, so The Little Prince attracts readers all over the world.This paper focuses on the existentialism in The Little Price, which has a great influence with the purpose of helping people understand life meanings deeply with the existential philosophy, such as love, responsibility and life. 1. The Little Prince The little prince, who lived in B-612 planet, was serious about life. And He lived with loneliness. He once saw the sunset forty-three times a day, because his heart was full of loneliness and sadness. Fortunately, a rose entered her life. The rose was so quiet and tender. She was beautiful and proud. They fell in love with each other; however, a small incident finally separated them. The sensitive little prince was so angry with the rose that he left his planet and began his lonely journey.The little prince traveled with new people and things, but he hated their lives, and he only felt strange and unreasonable of adults all the way. And until he came to earth, he met a little fox. He tamed her at the request of the little fox. Learning from the fox, the little prince began to realize that the rose tamed him, and he must take responsibility for her. The little prince learned how to love, and realized what he wanted. Finally the little fox told him that the material things were invisible. In the days when the little prince was looking at his planet, he said: “If you love a flower that lives on a star, then its good, at night, to look up at the sky. All the stars are blossoming.” 21P(321) Finally he chose the snake venom to end his life. Through the experience of this little prince, this book expounds the views and criticism of different types of adults in society, and puts forward some thought-provoking questions. The author especially borrowed the little princes mouth to praise friendship and fraternity, and hope that people will develop friendship and love each other. In the authors opinion, love is like the volcano on the planet where the prince lives, and friendship is like the little prince who works hard to eradicate the roses.In this work, also exposed some sentimental emotions. But it is not the main point, and it is not overwhelming. The story reached its climax, and it soon dissolved in joy. The little prince gave his parting gift to his friend: “you will have stars that can laugh.”21P(245)the pilot on the earth will hear his beloved little baby laugh in the stars of the stars, and he will hear all the stars laugh. Thus, the sadness in the work lost weight, death lost its terror.2. Existentialism Existentialism is one of the main schools of contemporary western philosophy. This term was first proposed by the French Catholic philosopher Gabriele Elma. Existentialism is mainly includes three categories: the monotheism existentialism, atheism existentialism and humanism existentialist. Existentialism takes people as the center and claims individuality and freedom. Man is living in a meaningless universe, and human existence has no meaning, but man can make a wonderful life based on the original existence. The ideological origins of existentialism mainly came from the mysticism of Sauron, Nietzsches voluntarism and Husserls phenomenology, etc. The main founder of existentialism was Heidegger, and then Sartre carried forward it. Existentialism is one of the main representatives of atheism existentialism. Heidegger put forward the title of existentialism for the first time in Sein und Zeit10.and promoted systematic and explicit theory of existentialism.2.1 Existence Precedes Essence “Existence precedes essence” was put forward by Sartre. It represents the metaphysics of existence. At first, human should be existent in the material universe, and then they begin to seek to the essence of themselves. It does not mean the existence of human beings but refers to the existence of specific individuals. 2.2 Accidental AbsurdityAll existence, including human existence, is accidental, and it is something that happens by accident. But it doesnt mean that the physical universe is disorderly and without regulation .And also, it doesnt mean the law of the material world is completely illusory and cannot be trusted any more. It is said that there is nothing in advance for the universe of man or matter.As for the so-called “accidental”, it refers to the existence of the material world is no reason, and it does not accord with some absolute concept, thought or spiritual interpretation to create certain significance in advance. Since all the existence is not decided, but by accident, we could know the existence is uncertain. It can be seen that existence is absurd fundamentally.2.3 Free ChoiceExistence is accidental and absurd. For human, first they exist, and then they determine their own essence by their choice. Therefore, man has absolute freedom, and the existence of man cannot be separated from the choice of man and the responsibility for his choice.Sartre pointed out that human freedom was absolute, because people live in a lonely world-people are “thrown” into the world. And God, science, rationality, morality are irrelevant, which cant tell us the truth and way of life, and they have no control and restraint. In conclusion, man has absolute freedom.Existentialism recognizes that human freedom is manifested in two aspects: free choice and action. Only through the actions of their own choice can man realize the freedom they own, because the essence of man is determined by the actions of his choice.The freedom of the individual is first expressed when they recognize that they lack freedom due to the bondage of traditional culture and customs. The most important thing is that people should realize the importance of free choice, and take charge of the action according to his choice.3. Interpretation of Philosophical Ideas of Existentialism in The Little PrinceThe famous existentialist thinker Sartre has a famous saying: “existence precedes essence.”This sentence expresses a basic idea of existentialism. Existentialism believes that the essence is based on existence and cognition is the premise of survival and only in the action of survival we can form our own essence. This also means another tenet of existentialism-to realize its essence in action. Existentialist believes that survival is free. To realize themselves, they must enter the realization process. Entering life means entering the situation. Without entering the situation, they can not mention the possibilities of realizing themselves.Existentialism, such as abstract philosophical thinking, does not necessarily depend on complex theories. But in the art world, especially in fairy tales, it is conveyed far more vividly and lively by The Little Prince.3.1 Existence and ExperienceExistentialists think that the world is absurd and life is painful. They believe there are many conflicts, struggles and cruelties between people, and the world is full of ugliness and crimes. Everything is ridiculous. And the people are the painful persons who live in this absurd and cold situation. The world can only be of endless depression, disappointment, pessimism negative and life is always painful. For existentialism, absurdity and loneliness are the most prominent dimensions of existent experience. 3.1.1 Absurdity In The Little Prince, this emotional experience first appeared as a sense of absurdity everywhere. For little prince, the earth and six other planets are an absurd square undoubtedly: the conceited king who fancied himself but without any subject; the merchant who put his heart into making money; the drunkard who benumbed himself with wine to escape from shame produced by drinking; the lamplighter who lighted on and off from day by day; the geographer who wrote mammoth-sized books but was unwilling to travel to see the real word and those people who “ squeezed into the fast train” lived absurd and meaningless life. The little prince thought it over and over again in his mind-“ The grown-ups are certainly very strange”21P(273)-this is the sense of absurdity he has experienced in his interplanetary journey. This absurd experience is just a representative experience and feeling of existentialism to the world. Existentialist believes that “the real survival situation of human beings can also be deeply reflected.” The Little Prince shows the adult of this absurd mood through a child, which indicates that the adult world is dull and numb. They have lived such a long life without any attention, but children are born with the ability to gain insight into all the truth. In the extreme experience of the little prince, the real survival of the adult world and the real psychology of modern people are completely exposed.In The Little Prince, the behavior of adults in this absurd world has one thing in common, that is repetition-incessant and meaningless repetition. As is mentioned in the book, the little prince does not understand the echo. This also reflects the survival status of adults- mechanization. The modern society is influenced by the “progress, development, prosperity” and other beautiful words, and social productivity is rising. Since the western industrial civilization is highly developed, machine replaced human even ruled everything. Human life had to follow the machine to work and rest. Like Jazz once said, “In the industrial society, the individual is just a gear on the machine, and as the machine rotates, it loses its own existence.” 19P(184) Gradually, people are like those machines, and they repeat the same work, life and entertainment every day.The absurdity of modern society is not merely mechanization, but abstraction too, which is represented by numbers and calculations. For the grown-ups in The Little Prince, they know about a person by the following: “How old is he? How many brothers do you have? How much do you weight? How much does his father earn a month?” 21 P(246)They have no imagination and dont feel the vocabulary description of the image, just like the saying “they dont know what a real life is” 21 P(286)Modern people have been living in the abstract, but they have forgotten or even are unaware of it at all. Television, radio, newspapers and various communication equipments can transmit information across the earth, thus leading to the increasingly indirect dealings with life, and people begin a new life style that is entirely dependent on external circumstances. Like the so-called geographer in The Little Prince, who only cares about the meaningless figures, but never cares about a small flower. In the face of this ridiculous world, the author expresses the irony, hatred and accusation of the little prince. When “I” finally provokes the little prince, he is really annoyed:“I know a planet inhabited by a red faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. Hes never looked at a star. Hes never loved anyone. Hes never done anything except adding up numbers. And all day long he says over and over just like you: “Im a serious man! Im a serious man! And that puffs him up with pride. But hes not a man at all-he is a mushroom” 21 P(257)Yes, both modern people and modern society seem really crazy. Everyone looks like a mushroom, and the world is like a huge mushroom garden. The main characters that human are distinguished from other things disappeared. The world in the little princes eyes is so absurd. In fact, it is really ridiculous, just because we all become mushrooms, we dont realize it.3.1.2 LonelinessAfter absurdity comes the strong loneliness. This loneliness haunts The Little Prince. The author gives each character with the same scene-that is loneliness. “I”, as an adult representative of modern society, lived a ridiculous and lonely life before encountering little prince. Although “I” has a clearer mind than the ordinary adults, because “I” am aware of the absurdity and loneliness of their existence, but there is no way out. Since I was six years old, life has been separated from my imagination. What are surrounding me were only those clear and incomparable abstract things such as geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. So “I” gave up being a painter and chose another career- pilot. The author San Andreas Perry was not unreasonable to set up the identity of the pilot, because he was a fanatical flying enthusiast, and the pilot became his lifelong career. In The Little Prince , “I” also chose pilot as a career. In the high altitude alone, facing the sky, white clouds and the earth, lonely feelings are inevitable and necessary. Only in this way does “I” has the opportunity to recognize that the existence of “me” is absurd. The people in the world are not aware of this absurdity and loneliness is the representation of the life experience and life consciousness.Coincidentally, the place where “I” met the little prince-the desert, also has the same connotation. Is the desert and solitude just like the sky? They are equally vast and far from the world. In which, people can feel their own smallness and insignificance, and if people want to survive in the desert, they need to play their greater potential, such as adamancy and volition. As the author San Andreas Perry put his words: “In the city, I forget the true colors of man. Only in the desert, I really find the true meaning of man.”17P(418)People in modern society live an absurd life just like being thrown into this world-helpless. From existentialists perspective, those people dont live, and they only exist. So loneliness and anxiety naturally