Utopian Ideology In The View From Saturday

With the application of ideological critique, the thesis focuses on the 1997 Newbery winner The View from Saturday. By comparing the descriptions in the novel with the real situations in the United States, the study finds that the depiction of harmonious racial and ethnic relationship, the centering of Native Americans and the disabled female teacher, and the portraits of ideal adolescents who like reading and calligraphy are all incongruous with the current historical conditions and real situations of adolescents in contemporary America, and are obviously utopian. In the light of the theories on ideological critique and utopian literature, the study finds that the utopian elements in the theme, characterization, plots, settings, and points of view of the novel reflect its underlying utopian ideology based on the author's concern for the adolescents and education in contemporary America and her good wish for the harmonious diverse society. In addition, the study finds that the utopian ideology of the novel is related to the author's experiences and the cultural tendencies in America. The author's profession as a children's book writer and her teaching experience make her combine utopian thoughts'dependency on education and the instructional function of children's literature, and express her expectation for the younger generation and good wish for the future of America in the novel. The characterization, settings and points of view of the novel reflect the influence of current cultural tendencies on the author, such as a renewed search for utopia, the civil rights movement which advocates equality and multiculturalism. Moreover, the study finds and concludes the paradoxes in the novel: the author's adherence to Euro-centrism and her advocacy of multiculturalism in the characterization lead to a paradox; the didactic intent of utopian writing and the child-centered writing philosophy reflected in the arrangement of first-person narrations by the adolescents make another paradox; and the advocacy of the spirit of competition reflected in the design of the Bowl story and the preference for relaxed and comfortable life in other plotlines show the author's paradoxical attitude towards competition.