Hunting Complex In American Literature: A New Read Of Moby Dick And The Bear

The thesis first argues that there exists Hunting Complex in American psyche and literature. Its essence is seeking for the identity of human beings in the New World. Hunting Complex has rooted deeply into the vines of American character, life, and society, and gives abiding and brilliant impetus to literary creation. It is internalized as intellect and passion, urging Americans to pursue visions, the Eden, and transcendental and divine truth and nature. On the other hand, it is externalized as militancy in terms of politics, attempting by conquering and occupying to transcend the provincialism of America. In the mentality of trying antagonism to as well as worrying estrangement from all the world alien to them, American writers produce great works in which epic and romance coexist and allegory and symbol blossom in radiant and aesthetic splendor.A clear - cut argument set forth, the paper, using the duet of epic and romance played by Hunting Complex as the keynote and pivoting on Moby Dick and The Bear, makes a thorough demonstration of the representation and function of hunting complex in literature. The discussion is gradually made from four aspects and in a comparative way.Then comes a general conclusion that the principal reasons for Moby Dick and The Bear as brilliant world literary gems are (1) hunting as the framework of plots and the vehicle for vast symbols, having epic and romance merge into one entity by exploiting modem novel techniques; (2) originality in the arrangement of content and form; (3) multiplicity in theme; (4) sublimity in light of "catharsis"; and above all(5), Hunting Complex as an agent for literary creation.In the epilogue, the thesis contends that Hunting Complex is universal and uniquely American. Hemingway's philosophy and works are a comprehensive footnote to Hunting Complex. In this case, T. S. Eliot' s "objective correlative" is the symbol assigned by Hunting Complex to the work of art. Therefore, Hunting Complex is a writing agent. Through the confrontation of values vs. virtues and the revolution in form, and to and fro the surface of his created works, the writer makes allegories and symbols of epic and romance, and a serenade of modernism and postmodernism. Whether it is a magnum opus like Moby Dick or a miniature treasure like The Bear, and whether it is sublime or elegant, an American literary work will find Hunting Complex lying low in it surfacing between the lines, and its vital and brilliant ' moving tragedy" energetically profound and enduringly melancholy.