Seeking True Self: The Issue Of Identity In Philip Roth’ Novels

In reading Roth’s works written in different periods, Itry to feel Roth’s inner creative power and creative thinking.I have found that “identity issue” is the theme of hiscreation or the issue of the writer’s interest, which enteredRoth’s creative consciousness very early and has beenconstantly written. The identity consciousness of “essencepresence” became disintegrated in the20thcentury, and how torestore an awareness of deterministic identity became a themeof Western culture in the20thcentury. As a Jew living in theUnited States, Roth is particularly sensitive to the feelingsof identity loss. He is fascinated by the mystery of Jewishidentity and very concerned about the identity situation ofJewish immigrants in American society. He thought about themetropolitan identity anxiety in the U.S.A. and was angry aboutthe fact that there emerged a large number of “mediocre”people who had lost their pursuit of identity. Rothbegan to raise a profound question in his works: How do we becomeourselves like now? And started to re-write about identity andexplore journey of seeking the true spiritual self. How do webecome ourselves like now？Roth’s multiple identities have enabled him to understanddeeply modern people’s identity multiplicity, especially inthe United States, a large country of immigrants. Roth also seesthat the determining factors of modern people’s awareness ofidentity are not one-fold but multiple. Therefore, Roth’sworks do not attempt to give any definitions for people, butthey inspect various factors that affect the sense of identityof American Jews and ordinary Americans. He is seeking the truthabout the self through different perspectives, different waysof thinking and different means, which constitutes the fouraspects of Roth’s pursuit of true self:1. Return to the body;2. re-examining the modes of Jewish identity existence thediscrete space;3. Studying the marginalization of AmericanJews in political and historical event, and the impact of falsepolitics on U.S. citizen’s identity;4. The identity crisis problems brought about by crises of social and family relations.Roth’s examinations of identity from various angles involvehis personal experience, a lot of knowledge of historical andcultural backgrounds. Adopting the method of integratingcultural analysis and text interpretation, this paper studiesthe identity issue in Roth’s works from the aforementionedfour aspects for the purpose of full understanding of thecreative ideas and methods of the Roth works about identitywriting.The introduction, on the one hand, sorts out and summarizesthe available studies of Roth, especially the identity issue.On the other hand, it generalizes the concept of “identityproblem” expressed by himself and his novels.Chapter One mainly explores Roth’s creative ideas andpractices of writing about identity with the body. The existingresearches on the identity issues in Roth’s novels have notedRoth’s fascination with sex. While over-interpreting thesexual meaning, relevant studies have ignored Roth’sexuberant writing about the “body”. It can be argued that,while exploring the true self, Roth tries to return to the body. Fascination with the body and developing the flesh connotationform important aspects of Roth’s effort to realize the humantrue self and mull over the relationship between culture andhuman beings.Chapter Two discusses the relationship between spatialshaping and identity in Roth’s novels. The existing papers onRoth’s identity issue pay attention to the impacts ofhistorical memory and trauma on the identity and destiny of thecharacters in the novels, but they have ignored space. TheJewish Diaspora lifestyle makes space play an important rolein the formation of the Jewish culture and its national identity.Geographical cultural differences give rise to different viewsof the Jews from different places on the same national identity.The rehabilitation of the Jewish state of Israel wasinterpreted as “pan-home”, and the culture and identity ofthe “homeless” Jews were faced with the conundrum ofreinterpretation and redefinition. The synchronicity of thegeographical homeland aroused Roth’s anxiety about identity,so, in his novels, he tried to express the relationship betweenhis worries about the Jewish national feature and identity and space. In addition, the relationship between space and identityin Roth’s novels is represented by his thinking of the spatialrelationship between writers’ creation and space, hisexamination of the changes of the national identity awarenessof the Jews induced by the spatial changes of American society,his writing about the people’s experience in Americanmetropolises, as well as the construction of suburban life–his ideal living space for people. The thesis discusses all theabove problems unprecedentedly, for there have been no scholarsin China who have probed Roth’s works from that perspective.Chapter Three writes about the search for identity inpolitical relations. Roth’s reflections on American Jewishidentity are done in combination with his politicalinvestigations. The close relationship between the fate of theJews and politics makes the Jews sensitive to politics, and Rothis no exception. Roth’s works contain a large number ofpolitical writings. Roth does not write for the sake of politics,but he writes about the relationship between the political andhuman identity and destiny. The available papers on therelationship between the characters in his novels and politics tend to focus on reviews of political background and history,attributing the figures’ tragic fate to political andhistorical tragedies, but overlook Roth’s political ideas andsome important factors in the formation of his political ideas,for instance, the reflection of the Holocaust and the adherenceof the spirit of American freedom. Elucidation of therelationship between the identity writing in Roth’s fictionsand politics with no consideration of this concern will nottouch the core idea and the original intention of politicalcriticism in the writer’s writing about identity. Ponderingover the history of the Holocaust enabled Roth to form ahumanitarian idea and concept of justice. Combined with thespirit of American freedom, Roth is based on humanitariangrounds and his original intention to defend American freedomand democracy in the revelation of the false politics in theUnited States and the harm of routine false political ideologyon the national ideology.Chapter Four is about the search for identity in socialrelations. Human beings are not isolated individuals. Humanhappiness and integrity need to be achieved in harmonious relations with others. Roth also pursues the true self in thethreefold social relation: the relationship between father andson, gender relationship and the relationship between thewriting’s identity and the self in life. This chapter looksat Roth’s identity awareness and his writing values in hisautobiographical writing and fictionalized autobiography. Theexisting papers on this issue often interpret Roth’sautobiography as factual materials and use them as argumentsto prove the relationship between his novel writing and his life.Few papers have reviewed the writer’s concepts of identity andarts from the perspective of interpreting the aesthetic formin Roth’s autobiography. This is the vacuum that this thesisis to fill in with its innovation. Besides, the analysis of therelations between the sexes investigates Roth’s understandingof gender identity and refutes some reviewers’ views that Rothis a “misogynist” and “sexist”. In my opinion, the “femaleobjectification” writing in his novels is related to theincompleteness of his Jewish identity and to his pursuit of aunique aesthetic effect.The concluding part summarizes the features of Roth’s writing about identity.