The Imagery Interpretation To The Naked And The Dead Of Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer’s position in contemporary American literature history isextremely important. He always appeared as a pioneer facing the world. In theface of constant changing American society, he had a meticulous observationand calm thinking.After world war two, he paid very great interest and attention to everythingwith most American characteristics, from the fascist tendencies In thedomestic to the counter-culture movement of the1960s; from the presidentialcampaign to the Vietnam war; From the Apollo to Gary·Jill’s execution; evenMarilyn Monroe and Muhammad·Ali. He also made the prophetic anticipationswith a strong sense of mission and responsibility for the society.Mailer’s novel "The Naked and the Dead" is his masterpiece, published in1948. This paper aims at making some interpretation to the symbol in it inorder to trace Mailer’s ideological content and social phenomena. In this paper,the imagery analysis of this novel is mainly divided into four parts: the first partis the battlefield imagery with the island as the background. Mailer showed adiverse thought-forms by constructing this space and its existence provided areasonable platform for the display of a variety of conflicts afterwards. Herevealed a profound ideological content through the excavation of this space,The second part deals with the military imagery. The image analysis of themain characters showed Mailer’s observations to the American society.Meanwhile, it also reveals the root of the people’s depressing, depressiveliving state after the Second World War.At the same time this part reviews the other figures involved and showsthe true society Mailer depicted as well. The third part is about the female imagery. The social situation this groupshowed not only reflected the view to women in Mailer, also reproduced thelong-standing gender harmony of opposites. We can clearly see that he washoping for gender harmony from his portrayal of the role played by women.At the same time based on Freud "psychoanalysis" creative skills, he gavethe cold atmosphere of the whole novel a trace of tenderness.The fourth part is the natural imagery in the novel. As a hidden imagery,it is deepening and continuation of all conflicts in the novel. The composition ofnatural images in my opinion, makes the obvious symbolic plots with profoundmoral fable. The theme of the novel in the images fully appeared. Mailer wouldalso like to take this image to show optimism for the future even the wholenovel filled with pessimistic color.