A Study On The Themes Of The Four Noveles By Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Wolfe, one of the greatest American novelists in 1930s, left behind him four novels, two volumes of short stories as well as other works. In the United States, his fame equals to those famous writers like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and other celebrities. However, he has been neglected in China due to the deficiency of resources. Nowadays, as his works being gradually translated into Chinese, he has been studied by Chinese scholars. The paper will explore the themes and their transitive features of the four autobiographic novels.The paper consists of six parts. In the first part, besides the literary review, an overall introduction of the works and themes of Wolfe's four novels is made. From the first to the fourth chapter, themes like"loneliness","a search for a father","duality of life", and"you can't go home again"are expounded respectively. In the fifth chapter, transitive features of the themes of the four novels are analyzed. Based on the analysis, it is clear that the first two novels are focused on the protagonist's individual feelings about the meanings of life while the last two novels turn to the focus on the world around the protagonist. Particularly, in the last novel"You Can't Go Home Again", the author appeals to the Americans under the Depression background that there is no home to go back again, which means they should face the future. The transitive feature of the themes reveals how the protagonists, as well as the author, gradually grow mature. Keywords: Thomas Wolfe, novels, themes, loneliness, a search for a father, duality...