论《我弥留之际》的存在主义危机.doc

毕 业 论 文Analysis on Existentialist Crisis In As I Lay Dying论我弥留之际的存在主义危机 教务处 制Abstract: As I Lay Dying, this novel describes under the development of capitalism economic in the north U.S.A in 1920s. Modern industry and social change invades the south. The hero is a poor white southern who in order to comply with the death heroines last words, leading his family to bury the coffin in a ridiculous foot journey. Specifically through analyze the south social background, master the reasons of Existentialist crisis in the south. People hold indifferent attitude to each other, they do not care each other. The crisis is caused by peoples ugly side. The South America experiences a very big change which its traditional agricultural economic encounters a huge impact. It results social economic depression. The farmers lead a poorer life. The south social morality is in terrible confusion. Peoples spirit is in confusion and nothing. In view of the Existentialist crisis, lets look at the southern social mind statement at that time. Then lets connects to discuss the Existentialist crises in the modern America.Key words: As I Lay Dying, U.S.A, social background, existential crisis ContentsIntroduction1The Work-As I Lay Dying1The Author- -William Faulkner2Chapter One Surface Meaning of As I Lay Dying- Existentialist Crisis of Heroes21.1The Definition of Existentialism21.2Addies Existentialist Crisis31.3 Anses Existentialist Crisis51.4 Darls Existentialist Crisis6Chapter Two Deep Meaning of As I Lay Dying62.1 The Deep Meaning of I and Dying62.2The Background of the South America in 1920s72.2.1 People Suspect to New Ideas72.2.2 Slavery and Racialism72.2.3 Contradiction Exist in the North and the South8Chapter Three If I Live at That Time (1920s)83.1How Can I Live a Better Life?83.2What Life Attitude I Should Hold?9Chapter Fourth Crisis in Modern America94.1Crisis Classifications94.1.1Crisis Caused by Human Beings94.1.2 Crisis Caused by Nature94.2What Major Crisis Exist in Modern America?104.2.1The Race Problem104.2.2 Wealth Inequality104.2.3The Unemployment Problem114.2.4 Unilateralism12Conclusion13Bibliography15Acknowledgement16Introduction As I Lay Dying wrote under the south was invaded by the north modern industry that faced a great social changes and turmoil. The Bundren family bury Addies coffin which experiences a hardship journey.The first chapter introduces the author William Faulkner, and the main point of the work As I Lay Dying, what a person he is and something about his achievement. The second chapter focuses on the surface meaning of As I Lay Dying, the Existentialist crisis of the Addie, Anse, and Darl then extents to the third chapter the deep meaning of this novel, the South America situation in1920s.The fourth chapter imagines I in that time what positive life attitude I should hold. The fifth chapter associates to crisis in modern American finally get conclusion. The Work-As I Lay DyingAs I Lay Dying is followed by the Sound and the Fury, which is a stream of consciousness novel. Addie, who is a teacher of Jefferson town and gets married a farmer, Anse. After that she is unhappy, several years later she have an affair with the road priest and gives birth to an illegitimate children Jewell as she is incompatible with the surrounding environment. When Addie is going to die, she asks her husband and children bury her body back to her hometown. For Addie, it is her final contempt to her husband and the society. To Anse and their children, it is respect to Addies last wish to complete it, without being averse to it. It also mixes with some strange personal interests in the ten day journey, which evolves it become a disaster. First the flood washes away the coffin, and then the mule is drowned, the fire almost bakes the coffin. Actually 40 miles of bumpy road take six days, the corpse is stinking. Finally they arrive at their destination, the family suddenly scattered. As a result, the eldest son is pressured by vehicle that loses the legs and becomes maimed for his rest life. Illegitimate child loses his treasure horse. Because of setting fire to coffin, Darl is sent to a lunatic asylum. His daughter wants to abortion but is seduced by the medicine man. The livestock pulls the carriage is swept away by the flood. But, only Anse fits with his false teeth and gets married a new wife. As I Lay Dying is a black, cruel comedy. Body image is the center of this fiction. Death is the central theme of the novel. It is not only reflects the incompetent and unfortunate of the Bundrens, but also conveys a general decline of the south emotions. So the novel is not only describes Addies dying who is a peasant woman, but also describes the dying throughout the south. There are 59 sections in this novel. Each of section is formed by stream of consciousness. There are 15 narrators in total, in addition to the seven members of the Bundren family, who are their neighbors, occasional visitors and so on. They tell about the story on different occasions and with different views. Addies dying is the core of the work which explains the role in stream of consciousness. The fresh spoken way of the southern farmer is used which is full of different personality. Writing skills are superb and amazing. Literally say, As I Lay Dying is a novel about a mistress of the Bundrens, Addie. After she dies something happen in this family. But metaphorically speaking, As I Lay Dying, I imply the past prosperity in the 1920s. Even though it is over, it affects American mind deeply, the 1920s still “dying”. Needless to say, in the novel Faulkner touches many social realities in American society at that time. It can be said that As I Lay Dying is a creative novel in the last 1920s, an important American novel. The first American major novel published in the 1930s. The Author- -William Faulkner William Faulkner (1897-1962) is an American writer who born in a southern family in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897, after the Civil War his family came down. Today he is recognized as “One of the greatest two American writers at his time”. In 1950, he won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature. Faulkner uses Shakespeares English language is hailed as the worlds creation, the imagination is hailed as Balzac, the characters reputation is portrayed in Dickens, inner exploration activity is hailed as Tuo Dostoevsky. During World War I, Faulkner serves in the Air Force. After the war he enters into the University, and then works in various occupations before writing. When Soldiers of the reward (1926) is published, Faulkner is listed as the lost generation, but soon he parts with it. Later when Sarah Rees (1929) appears, Faulkner reaches his creative peak. He finds that “The size of a postage stamp, a piece of homeland, the Yoknapatawpha is worth writing, Im afraid that I will never finish it in my long- life”.( Faulkner) With this belief, he put 19 long and 70 short stories in the “collapse of law descent”, reflecting the social reality between the era of the American Revolution and World War II, trumping the human comedy in the 20th century novel. His famous works, such as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying (1930), Temple (1931), Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom (1936) and other modern literature classics.In art, Faulkner is affected by Freud who uses bold experiments and stream of consciousness, a bit of symbol structure, metaphor performance and other means, such as violence, murder, sexual and other abnormal psychology. His work style is varied and confusing; readers should make great effort to feel his unique aesthetic taste. In 1949, Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature as he made a strong contemporary to American novel and contributed to the art uniquely.“American writers are not a part of American culture. They like nice dogs, people like them running around, then maybe they will become useless”. (William Faulkner) He holds pessimistic attitude to his own role in the American literature history. But President Kennedy mourns him liken Henry James and praises his work in eternal monument.Chapter One Surface Meaning of As I Lay Dying- Existentialist Crisis of Heroes1.1The Definition of Existentialism What is Existentialism? It is a non-rationale philosophy thought which emphasizes the individual, independence and subjective experience. People who first propose this concept are Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Jaspers and Martin Heidegger who can be regarded as the pioneer. In particularly, it spread widely in the 20th century. Sartre is a French philosopher and writer. Albert Camus is their representative. Sartre most famous proverb is that: “Existence precedes essence” and “Anything is possible”. (Sartre) What he means is that human survival is not justified in moral and soul. Moral and soul are created by person who exists in the world. People are not obliged to comply with certain ethical standards or religious beliefs, they have their freedom choice. To evaluate a person, people should evaluate what he has done rather than evaluate what kind of person he is, because a person is defined by his actions. Existentialism denies god or any other pre-defined rules. Sartre opposes any “resistance” factor in his long-life, because they reduce peoples freedom choice. Without such resistance, then a unique personal problem should be solved by the path he chooses to go. Sartre believes that when people face with some things, if they are not make in accordance with the individuals will “free choice”, then a person will throw away his personality, loss “self” and cannot be regarded as real exist in this world. Existentialism that is the individual value above anything else, the individual and society is always separated opposite. Those people who are thrown by the world will oppose any objective things in the community; constantly is threatened by the “self”. In his play Sartre was “closed” in an existential saying: Other people are (my) hell. Existentialist regard fear, loneliness, disappoint, disgust and abandonment etc., as their basis feelings towards the world. In their views, the difference between human and animals is that animals do not know the coming of its death, so they does not fear death; but people know they will die one day. Therefore, they believe that the process of existence is death process, so the pessimistic conclude that the “existence” means “does not exist”. What is identity? Homi Bhabha, a post-colonial critic definite “identity” like this: Identity is a main room, playing now action. It refuses the public and the private, psychological and social boundaries which do not give a sense of “self”, but they mark on other areas, such as language, social system, and unconscious into the consciousness”. (Bhabha 206) Status bases on those who depend on him and set up the identity. When “he” occurs alienates in this area, and then become the crisis. Everyone lives in the community, there are exist large or small crisis. One of them is that everyone will pass away; this is the law of life which cannot be changed. There are some crisis in each character of As I Lay Dying, I will analyze about Addie, Anse, Darl following.1.2Addies Existentialist CrisisAddie is one of the main characters in the novel. Who is born in a town family, she receives formal education as her family economic conditions is not bad and as a suburb teacher. As a daughter, she is influenced by her father ideological thoughts, which the reason for people living is get ready to die in a very long time. She lives in her small world with inactive life point and waits for death. This forms her poor speech and silent character. “I just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead along time. And when I would have to look at them day after day, each with his and secret and selfish thought, and blood strange to each other blood and strange to mine and think this is the only way I could get ready to stay dead”. (William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying134) As a teacher, she does not like her students and teaches them very old knowledge, as her traditional thinking. Her classes are inactive and dull. Her painful life memories leave her suspicion and nothing. Suspicion and nothing are very difficult to set her mind which makes her life very hard. And she chooses to bear grudges and revenge. Her interpersonal relationship is very bad who cannot get along with her family and neighbors. As a result, she lives a very lonely life. To her, life is a kind of burden, making her have an extreme character. That leads her illicit intercourse with the priest, Whitfield. She just wants to find a person to rely on, but the priest cheats her. To a certain extent, it deepens her withdrawn and alone. As a city girl, who is noble but gets married a vulgar rural people (that is, marry below). It is a typical expression that she cannot “choose” reality and disillusion in reality ultimately. Under this tragedy life, the heroine is deprived her option to choose. Which it usually results two destinies: either betrayal and infidelity, or abnormal mental state. In this novel, Addie is not only have an affair, but also have abnormal attachment to her third son, Jewel .The following passage can explain this situation.I would think of sin as I would think of the clothes we both wore in the worlds face, of the circumspection necessary because he was he and I was I; the sin the more utter and terrible since he was the instrument ordained by God who created the sin, to sanctify that sin He had created. While I waited for him in the woods, waiting for him before he saw me, I would think of him as dressed in sin. I would think of him as thinking of me as dressed also in sin, he the more beautiful since the garment which he had exchanged for sin was sanctified. I would think of the sin as garments which we would remove in order to shade and coerce the terrible blood to the forlorn echo of the dead word high in the air. Then I would lay with Anse againI did not speak lie to him. I just refused, just as I refused my breast to Cash and Darl after their time was uphearing the dark land talking the voiceless speech.（William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying 1588） As a wife, she does not actually look Anse as her husband, because she does not love him at all, they are just combined with sex. She does not pay much love to the family and does not feel Anses existence. She lives in pain and does not smile every day. She always lives in shadow, only resentment. That is normal she fornicates with a roving priest, not abiding by the womenfolk. Later she is abandoned by the roving priest. The result is that she becomes more alone and colder. Her health condition is very bad, as there is no money for her medical treatment, her disease is dragged until cannot be cured. Under this situation, her husband, Anse has no alternative but to find a local doctor. In order to retaliate Anse and their children, she requires them bury her body back her hometown after her die. As a mother, she only sees Jewel (she and the priests illegitimate son) as her own child, other children are not recognized as her children. She does not love other children and does not complete as a mother duty. To her, children are a heavy burden. She complains about her life until she dies, as she always out of tune to this society. Her whole life is filled with crisis all the time that is a very tragic figure. In conclusion, Addie does not play as a good mother or a good wife role in the Bundrens, which is a family filled with tragedy. Her existence crisis causes from her childhood and then extents to her whole life.1.3 Anses Existentialist CrisisThe previous section mainly researches Addies Existentialist crisis. This section explores the father, Anses Existentialist crisis. Anse is a selfish, lazy, mean and irresponsible father. As a head of the family and the role of the pillar, he holds his excuse that he cannot sweat which is bad to his heath and does not help the family earn money. As a man who is authoritative center of a family, he puts all the duties to his poor kids, adds extra pressure and burden to them. So they are not enjoying the joy and happiness like other children. As a husband, he is less concerned about his wife. When Addie disease is very serious, he does not call the doctor right now until she will die. As a father, normally that he should provide for his family and shelter his children, his wife. He should be called to his children anytime and anything, for example, a roof, food and clothing. Moreover studies show that let a family feel secure and encouraged, the father should earn enough money to provide for this family. However, Anse does not take his responsibility to support enough finance to his family. In contrast to, he shirks all his work to his children and his neighbors; he does not work at all. Who sells the third sons beloved horse, puts away his daughters abortion money to gets married a new wife and buys his dentures. His behaviors reflect that he is very weak. No wonder he is despised by his children. Armstid says that “If a man cannot keep the upper hand of his sons, he ought to run them away from home, no matter how big they are. And if he cant do that I be durn if he ought not to live himself”.( Faulkner , As I Lay Dying151) From his words with his daughter- when he plans to take her money away can clearly portray his ugly qualityself-centered, shameless and hypocritical. On the other side, from the conversation between them,