On David Kepesh's Alienation In Kepesh Trilogy

Philip Roth has been one of the most influential and consistently controversial writers in modern American literature. His identity as a Jewish American writer has once made him alienated from the mainstream culture of America, which therefore made him greatly impressed by alienation. In his works, Roth also portrays many alienated characters, among which the most typical one is David Kepesh who is the protagonist of his Kepesh Trilogy (The Breast, The Professor of Desire, The Dying Animal). Since the time when he gained fame for the success on Goodbye, Columbus, Philip Roth's works have always drawn much attention from the critics and much research has been done on most of them from many different perspectives. However, Roth's Kepesh Trilogy, a series of novels mainly on the life experience of the protagonist David Kepesh from childhood to old age, is an exception and has not been given due critical attention both at home and abroad.Early in the 20th century, Literary studies has somewhat begun to divert into researching the phenomena of alienation in literary works. Since then, such research has become more and more popular with the emergence of post modernism. Based on close reading the texts, the thesis is going to concentrate on a detailed analysis of alienation which is manifested in the text by David Kepesh—the protagonist in Kepesh Trilogy and intend to seek for the ways out to rid of alienation.The thesis consists of three chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion. Chapter 1 mainly deals with the illustration of the manifestation of David Kepesh's alienation from childhood, adolescence and adulthood, and then to old age. David Kepesh's experiences throughout his life more or less reflect his alienation. Chapter 2 mainly centers on digging out the roots of his alienation from three perspectives—Jewish ethics, social background and personal inability. Chapter 3 focuses on David Kepesh's own searching for the ways out of alienation. Knowing that he himself is alienated, the protagonist has made every effort in searching for the ways to get rid of alienation. Despite the fact that the readers are not sure whether David Kepesh could completely get rid of alienation or not for the open ending of Kepesh Trilogy, this chapter still put emphasis on David Kepesh's ways out which he has tried to seek for himself—psychological therapy and emotional sustenance.In the light of the above analysis, this thesis attempts to state that David Kepesh's alienation is simply one of the representatives of alienation in modern world. Through the analysis of the roots and the ways out of David Kepesh's alienation, this thesis expects to offer reference for the people who are suffering from alienation. Since alienation has become a common phenomenon in people's lives in modern world, it would be of great value and importance if people could pay more attention to it.