A Study On American Pastoral From The Perspective Of Existentialism

Philip Roth is one of the most talented and remarkable American Jewish writers ofthe contemporary eras in succession to Hemingway and Faulkner. He is probably themost influential living writer in the aspect of productivity and in vision. He is unique onthe ground that he has been awarded a great number of honors and prizes for literatureand has more than once exciting climaxes for writing career. Many of his novels makequite a stir on the post-war literary scene since publication and thus he is acclaimed theemerging heir to the great American writers like Hemingway and Faulkner.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which mainly makes a brief introduction to Philip Rothand his entire body of works, especially the fiction American Pastoral. And then itpresents a summary of the previous research of American Pastoral and Philip Roth’sother novels, and then points out the great significance of the analysis on the AmericanPastoral from the existentialist angle.The second part is the main body, which is made up of three chapters:Chapter One elaborates on existentialism from three aspects including its origin,development and the main concepts. It probes into the fundamental reasons of theemergence of existentialism from the angles of history, culture and society. This thesisintroduces three leading representative figures of existentialism, their masterpieces andlasting influence. Now that the thesis bases its theoretic basis on Satrean existentialism,the author of the thesis will focus her attention on it and expound the three concepts ofSartre’s existentialism. These theories will be applied in the following discussion of theabsurdity and angst in Philip Roth’s American pastoral.Chapter Two, divided into three parts, makes an in-depth discussion on theexistentialist elements embodied in modern American literary creation. It firstconcentrates on one of the main ideas of existentialism: absurdity of the world. Becauseof the incomprehensible chaos and contingence, the world takes on the scene of absurdity.The disorder and absurdity of the world is the situation where the characters in the novelare confronted. The Swede is experiencing and learning about life and making constant struggle to survive with dignity in the absurd and chaotic world. He is frightened by hisrealization of the meaninglessness of his meaning of existence and the world as a whole.Then the author of the thesis continues to discuss the second aspect of existentialism,loneliness. As Sartre sees it, the omniscient loneliness exists everywhere in the universe.Philip Roth is quite interested in the omniscient loneliness drifting in the aloof world andelaborates on it in his novel American Pastoral. This loneliness is invisible, intangibleand thus unknowable. Life is full of loneliness and human beings need to reflect and findsolutions to come to terms with the overwhelming solitude in the endless time and space.The author focuses her attention on the last part of chapter two, angst. Sartre once said:“We can not overcome anguish, for we are anguish.”(Sartre,1999:43) The fictionunfolds its authentic picture of depression and anguish of people in the1960s and putshighlight on the story of the Swede who wishes for a peaceful and pastoral life but,frustrated in his attempt, senses loneliness and angst.Chapter Three involves three bad consequences of the basic living states of mankind.Because of the harsh world and the omniscient and eternal absurdity, loneliness and angstdiscussed in the second chapter, mankind is distorted and is susceptible to bad faith. Here,a deep analysis is made to demonstrate the characters’ being distorted by the ruthlessexternal forces in their life struggles. The characters are distorted from two aspects, oneis the fragmentation and the other is alienation. Modern civilization has made it difficultto keep healthy human nature and find positive meaning of existence. Mankind gets lostin the process of endless blind pursuit of material accumulation. The nature of humanbeing is poisoned and twisted and people undergo spiritual emptiness and angst.Fragmentation, alienation and bad faith become the common failings and phenomena ofhuman beings.The last part is conclusion, which makes a summary to the preceding critique, andpoints out the main purpose of this thesis. Roth acknowledges the influence of the Frenchphilosopher Sartre whose works have inspired him to work on American Pastoral. Theterrible scenes of riot, violence, desertion and death keep floating in the presence of hisreaders, scare and suffocate them, and reveal vividly the emotional and psychologicalcrisis of modern American people. The vivid description of the Swede’s angst anddespair at the fallen state of the detached world in the book reminds that human beings should be alert to the existential states at every minute. The fiction also indicates Roth’sdesire and longing for improvement of the existing condition of mankind. Owing to thisfiction, he accomplishes the transcendence from the Jewish label and reaches the heightof the general mankind. His significant high-quality body of works and the distinctivefeature merit attention and leave his readers much in-depth food for thought. He appealsthat the general mankind not just philosophers or writers should be more concerned abouttheir existential condition, fate and even future.