Spiritual Crisis Of The Modern Man:A Lacanian Interpretation Of In The Beauty Of The Lilies

John Updike is a famous American novelist and poet. During his lifetime, he has written 61 works including fiction, prose, poetry, reviews and drama,23 of which are novels. In his literary career which lasted almost half a century, Updike nearly received all the important awards which can be conferred to literary creators in America.America is a country established on Christian faith. Religious culture is an important part of American social culture:if a person is sworn in as President of the United States, he or she is obliged to put a hand on the Bible; the army, navy and air force all have chaplains with them; schools open courses in religion; "In God We Trust" is even imprinted on all the bills. French political thinker Tocqueville said in the 1830s, "There is no country in the world like America, in which Christianity has great influence on the people’s spirit...... Religion dominates social morality, and controls the country through controlling family life" (康马杰,1988:249). From the 17th century to the 21st century, no matter how unstable religion becomes, American people’s religious sensitivities always last. Updike’s words are "America is religious by nature, and having a religious sense of mission is a basic quality of Americans" (谷学儒,2011:14). Obviously, Updike hopes that religion can continue to play its social role, helping believers to adjust mentation and regulating individuals’behaviors, thus stable and peaceful state of mind can be achieved. America’s religious practice proves that from the American century to now, Christianity has changed a lot in America. Americans’faith in God is shaken. In the novel In the Beauty of the Lilies, Updike grasps the theme firmly. He regards the Wilmots as the miniature of the American people and shows the decline of American Christianity in the American century.The modern psychoanalytic theorist Lacan’s theory provides a new literary approach of criticism for literary critics. With this approach, literary critics try to exceed the limitations of the text and enter the subject’s inner world, so that a comprehensive and profound understanding of the subject can be achieved. By applying Lacan’s Three Orders, the thesis aims to find out the deeper and inner reasons that result in the four characters’spiritual crisis. It also hopes to attract readers’attention, and provide a new train of thought for study on Updike. Last but not least, it is concluded that spiritual crisis is not just a particular experience of the characters in the novel. The problems they encounter on the way of seeking for beliefs are human beings’ common problems.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces John Updike and his work In the Beauty of the Lilies, gives a survey of studies on the novel at home and abroad, introduces Lacan’s subject theory, and explains the focus and structure of the thesis. The second chapter analyzes how the characters establish their own faiths respectively in the Imaginary. Clarence identifies with his pious father; Teddy identifies with his father’s image; Essie identifies with dazzling movie stars; and Clark identifies with his successful mother. But their identification is proved false or failed later. The third chapter explains the fragmented state of the four characters in the Symbolic. Clarence loses his faith gradually; Teddy rejects the big Other and insists on staying in the Imaginary; Essie goes too far on the way of pursuing fame and wealth; and Clark joins a cult because of his blind pursuit of God. The fourth chapter deals with Clarence and Clark encountering the destruction of desire and befalling of death when they get close to the Real. The last chapter concludes the thesis, and points out Updike’s concern about spiritual crisis of the modern man, and the novel’s implication that religion is a way to solve spiritual crisis, yet more exploration and search are needed.