A Neo-realistic Approach To The Protagonists’ Living Predicaments In The Dying Animal And Everyman

Philip Roth is one of the most prominent contemporary American writers.During his literary career of more than four decades,Roth has maintained his amazing literary creativity.Approaching his senility,Roth starts to pay attention to the broad social reality again after a profound reflection on his literary career,which marks the beginning of his splendid literary phase of neo-realism.Based on a detailed textual analysis,this thesis discusses,from the neo-realistic perspective,the protagonists’ living predicaments in The Dying Animal and Everyman.Neo-realism has inherited not only the principle of the traditional realism,but also the writing techniques of postmodernism,such as black humor,irony and flashback.This characteristic of neo-realism makes it an appropriate way of reflecting the ongoing reality,including the living predicaments confronted by contemporary people.The protagonists of both The Dying Animal and Everyman face a series of living predicaments,such as diseases,death and spiritual nothingness.On the one hand,they are confronted with the physical deterioration and the threat of death.On the other hand,their unsuccessful marriages and their betrayal of the Jewish traditions and religion lead to their loneliness and anxiety.In order to get rid of these living predicaments,the protagonists make their free choices to employ sex as a means to fight death and to pursue freedom through betrayal and autonomy.Nevertheless,all their efforts end in failure,for they are still haunted by fear and anxiety.Roth has deliberately weakened the protagonists’ Jewish identity,portraying them merely as common Americans.The series of living predicaments also applies to other people.In this sense,both of these two works have universal meaning,which shows Roth’s profound meditation on the living situation of all the contemporary American people and his ultimate humanistic concern for them.