Limbo Change

Michel Tournier's novel Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique is one modern version of myths initiated by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Tournier doesn't simply rewrite or adapt the story, but exactly renders the character Robinson Crusoe the particular strength of reflection, which is constructed through echoing with western thoughts of self-examination in 20th century. Tournier explores an abundant meaningful inner space which is a mixture of philosophy, theology, anthropology, psychology, linguistics and augury. The novel is endowed a quality of self-fable in which the writer profoundly deliberates Robinson's possibility as an individual existence and his spiritual dimensionality as a subject of self-reflection.The novel reveals a process of character's thorough variation in two aspects:body and spirit. Self, other, and world are crucial elements in this process. The theme of the novel is the presenting of possible way of real existence for life of subjectivity. This paper, therefore, focus on Robinson's solitary situation himself in chapter 1. Chapter 2 elaborates the other's affections on self in the way of discussing their relationships. Chapter 3 analyzes the subject's changing process caused by external world. The analysis of above three questions reveals a changing trace of Robinson's life, which implies three intellectual and mental meanings:three stages of cognition, from religion to worship of beauty, eternal will. The idea of chapter 4 is that the succession of this three meanings constitutes a changing trace of thoughts. In this intellectual-dominating artistic style, Michel Tournier gives Robinson an character of subjective reflection and self-transcendence in the long period on the "limbes" and describes an ideal state which life could reach.