Acritical Analysis Of Technological Alienation In Clock Without Hands

Clock without Hands was the last novel of Carson McCullers, who was a famous American Southern writer. It took her about fifteen years to complete this novel. Its geographic background is set in American Southern town from 1953 to 1954. Its historical background is set against the Black Civil Rights Movement and American industrialization. It spans from the day when pharmacist Malone is diagnosed with leukemia to the day when Malone dies. This novel describes the town people’s life journey under modern technological rationality. As a great master of technological alienation, Marcuse points that in developed industrial society, technology has already become the new form of social control which dominates over people’s will and freedom. It eliminates people’s critical thinking. This thesis focuses on Marcuse’s technological alienation theory to explore the distortion and suppression of modern industrial civilization in this novel, trying to point out the effective ways to eliminate alienation and regain identity.This thesis consists of five chapters. In Chapter One, some background knowledge is introduced on McCullers and Clock without Hands. Relative researches on the author and the novel, technological alienation theory, the significance and layout of this thesis are presented. Chapter Two explores the causes of technological alienation in McCullers’ s novels from three dimensions: the hundred years’ history of American South, the secularization of religion and McCullers’ s personal experience of technological rationality. Chapter Three analyses the phenomena of technological alienation in this text. Under the attack of consumerism, black boy Sherman Pew is in the crisis of identity. Poor white worker Sam Lank who represents proletariat is enslaved by capitalists and becomes “One-dimensional Man.” Under the ideological control of instrumental rationality, the middle class pharmacist Malone is in psychological crisis. Chapter Four proposes strategies of self-salvation and anti-alienation. By refusing violence inflicted on Sherman and returning back to nature, Malone establishes his subjectivity. With Eros and art, Jester successfully resists the assimilation of industrial civilization and keeps his independent mind intact. Chapter Five is the conclusion. It presents a summary of this study and shows the main findings of this thesis. McCullers’ s critical attitude toward technological rationality displays her humanistic concern for modern people and her wish to build a harmonious society. This also shows McCullers’ s long-term foresight as an author.