Research On The Narrative Structure And Tragic Theme Of "Look Homeward,Angel"

Thomas Clayton Wolf(1900-1938)is one of the most unique writers in the history of American literature.his life,short and glorious.At the age of thirty,with an autobiographical novel "Look Homeward,Angel"fame,instantly among the most popular American novelist of the column,was praised as first-class literary rookie.Wolfs unique style of writing made him criticized by literary criticism after his lifetime.As an autobiographical novelist,Thomas Wolfs work is full of the author’s personal experience.This paper starts from the text of "Look Homeward,Angel",analyzes the superficial structure of the novel and the deep structure of the novel by using the narratology theory of Greimas,and studies the deep implication of the novel.This thesis consists of seven parts:introduction as the opening,is a brief introduction to Wolf;the first chapter is based on the novel at home and abroad research and summarizing the theory of the introduction;the second chapter is the analysis of action and quality characters by Greimas action element category,role function and survival status of novels,in the narrative process;The third chapter is the analysis of the structure of the novel "seeking" and explore the behavior pattern of the novel characters;the fourth chapter is the analysis of the deep structure of the novel.The use of "binary opposition" thinking and "semantic square"model to grasp the ideas contained in the novel;the fifth chapter is the narrative structure of the novel,the creation of the tragedy of the novel and its tragedy analysis,insight into the novel contains the tragedy of the individual and the collective,the times and the culture;the last chapter is the summary,the novel hero and his family’s pursuit of a comprehensive description of the novel to further deepen the narrative structure and tragic theme.With the help of Greimas ’s theory of narratology,from the surface structure,we can see that there is a distinct narrative clue in the novel " Look Homeward,Angel".This pursuit is not only the hero of the individualist heroic search,but the protagonist Eugene as a representative of the collective "seeking to explore the meaning of life and the true meaning.However,the search for the lack of fruit and the pursuit of loneliness on the road makes the novel with a strong tragedy.Moreover,the novel to the family as a narrative unit,which expanded the narrative breadth of the novel,deepened the tragedy of the novel.Using the deep structure analysis,we can find that the novel constructs the contradiction between reality and ideal in the way of binary opposition,and the escape and pursuit can not break the dilemma of reality.The search for the hopelessness of the "homeward" of the spirit,the failure to flee their own loss and loneliness implies that the novel’s pursuit of the desires of the ideal world reveals the tragedy of the novel.At the same time,as an autobiographical novel,the author’s own experience is also manifested in the novel,the reality of the author’s own feelings also appeared in the novel,the meaning of the novel spread to the entire real society,breaking the novel text within the closed and practical significance.Through the analysis of the narrative structure and the theme of the novel,we can see that the novel has a distinctive and profound narrative structure and theme ideas.Despite the lack of coherence between lyricism and realism in the novel,we can see the unique charm of the novel by using the new perspective and ideas provided by the Greimas’s narrative theory.