Space Images And Cultural Representation In Sinclair Lewis’s Free Air

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature (1930). His early novel Free Air (1919) described Claire Boltwood, accompanying her father, conducted a tour by car from American east to the west. During the travel, she met Milt Daggett and fell in love with him. Based on the angle of space, this thesis aims to explore the different space images and their corresponding cultural representations. Then, the thesis tries to further probe into the inner links between the urban, rural space images and the cultural representations as well as the factors which promote the transformation of the characters.There are five parts in this thesis. Introduction briefly presents Sinclair Lewis and his works, literature review on Free Air, the space image and cultural representation and the significance of the thesis. In some degree, this thesis is innovative, which can be regarded as the first thesis of Master of Arts studying Free Air from the perspective of the space image.The main body of the thesis embodies three chapters. Chapter One protrudes the urban space images, depicting two urban cities to display the privileged, commercial, consumer and tolerant urban culture. The luxurious life and desire for money of middle class are well illustrated through the characters. Chapter Two emphasizes the rural space images, analyzing three rural spaces to show the backward, tedious and conservative rural culture. By contrasting Milt Daggett and Pinky Parrott, Sinclair Lewis reveals two typical groups. Milt Daggett represents the group with enterprising and innovative minds, longing for changing their lives through their persistent endeavor while Pinky Parrott stands for the poor group with decayed minds, dreaming to reap profits by other people’s toil. Chapter Three highlights the natural space images, analyzing the identity transformation of the protagonists and cultural representation.The last part is the conclusion aiming to summarizing that this thesis analyzes Sinclair Lewis’s Free Air from the perspective of space image while investigating the cultural representation reflected by different spaces and the real America in the eyes of Sinclair Lewis.