Religious Perplexity--An Existentialist Analysis Of In The Beauty Of The Lilies

John Updike(1932-2009), who had acquired the most awards, is one of the most important and prolific American writers in the secondary period of the 20th century. He once said that, "A writer's job is to, by way of fiction, somehow describe the way we live" (Plath 216).In the process of such truth-telling, Updike believes that one in fact comes upon the awareness of Sacred Presence in human experience. So the theme of religion always appears in most of his novels. He keeps his interest in the development of religion in modern society and his works always can reflect the change of the religion. Especially In the Beauty of the Lilies, which is seen as a historical novel,shows the change of the American society of the 20th century. The author emphasized the crisis in the spiritual realm in the novel.The self-consciousness Updike shows in the novel is similar to Kierkegaard's existentialist thoughts.Based on Kierkegaard's existentialist theory, this thesis analyzes the four protagonists'living conditions and the changes of religious faith.This thesis is divided into three parts.The first part is introduction; Updike's life experience is surveyed, followed by a brief account of the novel and various discussions and criticisms about it in literary field.The second part, including three chapters, is the body part of the thesis.Chapter One is the theoretical frame. It briefly introduces the development of Existentialism, Kierkegaard's life experience and his main thoughts including the concept that subjective is truth and the three stages of human life:aesthetic, ethical and religious stage.Chapter Two analyzes the causes of Clarence's loss of faith and his struggle between his responsibility and reality. And his little son Teddy, though influenced by his father, no longer believes in God and lives a contented life after finding a proper life style for him.Both of them live mainly in the ethical stage.Chapter Three analyzes the third and forth generation Esther and her son Clark. Apparently Esther got success on career with the religious faith. In fact she lived in the aesthetical stage-in order to satisfy his desire for the fame and money she used sex as her instrument and became alienated to her family. Religion now also has become the practical instrument. Growing in the environment lacking of love Clark admired his mother's success from "God". He also wanted to be successful and searched for the thing that can bring him self-satisfaction, but he mistakenly involved in the cult and doomed to be a tragic. They live mainly in the aesthetic stage.The third part is Conclusion. Through the analysis of the stages of life the four protagonists mainly live in, the important role of religion plays is apparent in American society. And the religious changing of 20th century is shown. As the development of the society, people lose the traditional religious faith and living aesthetic and ethical lives they are doomed to have feelings of despair. They conversely are questing ways to get out of the despair and religion can be regarded as one of the ways needing to be pursued continuously.