A Study Of The Alienation Of Amelia’s Image

Carson McCullers is one of the most prestigious American writers in the 20 th century,who wins a great reputation in the literary world of New York merely at the age of twenty-three.With many melodious styles and exquisite psychological description of characters,she is known as one representative of the second generation writers whose works reveal a genuine pathos,different from other writers during Southern Renaissance.Honored as a lonely hunter by many critics,she is talented in describing those themes such as loneliness,isolation and alienation.The Ballad of the Sad Café is one of her masterpieces,which is also one of immortal works in the history of Southern American Literature.By developing a deformed triangle of love,the author tells a sad story in a traditional southern town and outlines a great number of vivid characters with an original technique,in particular Amelia.As soon as the novel is published,it has caused a sensation in the United States and Western Europe.So far,many critics abroad have studied this novel from various perspectives,for instance,spiritual structure,narrative strategy,gender crossing,etc.Compared with studies abroad,the study of Carson McCullers as well as her works at home starts relatively late.The study at home can be roughly divided into the following four stages,namely,the introduction stage,the translation phase,the preliminary and in-depth interpretation stage.Yet up to now,there has been no systematic study on the alienation of Amelia’s image and only a few related statements are found.Based on close reading of the novel and the method of combining social history research,this thesis attempts to analyze the reflection of the alienation of Amelia’s image in the novel from the perspective of Fromm’s view of alienation of Humanism,namely,she is alienated from herself,from society and from nature.In this way,readers can expound the external and internal causes for the alienation of Amelia’s image,in which her flawed character is the root of her tragedy.This thesis consists of five chapters.The introduction summarizes Carson McCullers and The Ballad of the Sad Café,as well as the literature review on this novel.By reviewing the present condition,it expounds the perspective and significance of the study.Chapter two introduces the definition and development of alienation from the etymology at the beginning.Then it looks back on Erich Fromm’s theoretical achievements and elaborates main content of his humanistic alienation.Fromm realizes the issue of alienation of human and points out different types of character,lifestyle and utterance.Based on this view,he insists that the alienation results in the loss of those general and social bonds and he calls for that human beings ought to change the situation of survival by increasing their sense of self-identity,dedicating themselves to mature love and participating in creative activities.His theory covers self-alienation,the alienation between oneself and society,and the alienation between oneself and nature.Chapter three applies Fromm’s theory to make analyze the alienation of Amelia’s image.First,it mainly discusses Amelia’s self-alienation.From the perspective of character,Amelia’s character varies from “the exploitative orientation” to the “the receptive orientation”,and it makes her turn into insane from previous optimism and openness.In the terms of lifestyle,Amelia’s lifestyle varies from “having mode” to“being mode”,and she comes to be despaired from antecedent self-sufficiency;In terms of utterance,Amelia’s utterance operates into a mechanism named anonymous authority,which makes her transform into a special silent from a conversationalist earlier.Second,it is about Amelia’s alienation from society.As an outsider of a deformed family,she keeps distant with Lymon,treats her servant and neighbor cruelly and shrewdly.Third,it analyzes the alienation between Amelia and nature.When the natural catastrophes poses a serious threat to Amelia’s survival,she puts her personal interests above nature and attempts to make malignant destructiveness toward nature in a crazy way,which leads to the fact that other people around her follow her blindly all the time.As a result,Amelia has become a lonely survivor in the small town as well as a tragic outcast in a desolate café.Chapter four probes reasons for the alienation of Amelia’s image.The materialism,the coldness of human relationship and the social moral degradation caused by the distortion of modern civilization are the external causes for Amelia’s alienation.Besides,Amelia’s flawed character,such as her indifference,pursuit of violence,as well as vacillation and limpness is the internal causes for Amelia’s alienation.Chapter is the conclusion,which points out that it is very valuable to carry out the research of interpreting The Ballad of the Sad Café,as it not only reflects CarsonMcCullers’ deliberated thoughts on the fate of ordinary individual and the attention of the spiritual world,but it also manifests her persistent yearning for the harmonious relationship between man and nature.The alienation is inevitable in the course of the development of capitalist society according to Fromm,while Amelia’s personal character and the loss of her own personality,which to a certain degree,can prick up the process of the alienation of her image.People are able to keep away from alienation and get rid of the restraint of modern civilization on the basis of increasing self-identity,building up good relationship and actualize harmony between man and nature.Only in this way can human return to the true state of human nature and search for the real meaning of life.