A Study Of Jim’s Quest For His Identity In Lord Jim

Joseph Conrad is the author of Lord Jim. As a Polish-born English novelist, he is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak English until he was in his twenties.Lord Jim focuses on Jim’s life in exile from his culture and pursuit for his fate. Jim is a sailor marginalized by white men’s world after Patna accident. Then he has no choice but move to Malaysian virgin forest, Patusan. Jim wins the trust of Patusan by his effort, but his good fame is destroyed by Brown’s invasion. Then Jim is expelled from Patusan again. Jim is struggling between two cultures. He is a hybrid ’marginal man’who, lives’in two worlds, in both of which he was a stranger’.This thesis can be divided into five chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction to the writer Conrad and Lord Jim. It provides the history of criticism on Lord Jim at home and abroad as well as the motive and structure of the thesis. Chapter Two mainly introduces Bhabha’s hybrid identity and "in-between" space. Chapter Three analyzes the quest for Jim’s identity. There are three steps for Jim to look for his identity. Jim’s identity changes with his change of places. Chapter Four analyzes the causes of Jim’s failure to achieve his identity, and mainly discusses the distortion of Jim’s self-identity and the social reasons. Chapter Five is the conclusion of this thesis. Through rereading Lord Jim, it tries to bridge the binary between East and West. It demonstrates a new perspective to people who lives "in-between" and provides enlightenment to modern people.