On Pinkie's Role Predicament In Brighton Rock

Graham Greene is an excellent contemporary novelist of Britain.Published in 1938,Brighton Rock is a transitional work,which represents the shift of Greene's writing from the entertainments to serious novels.It mainly tells a story of the protagonist Pinkie who commits crimes continuously in his struggling for survival and eventually goes to annihilation.So far,most researches of Brighton Rock,both at home and abroad,focus on its religion theme,genre and the writing art.Only a very few studies have been made from the perspectives of interdisciplinary.This thesis is designed to explore Pinkie's plights in the process of his role playing on the basis of role theory and tries to pry about the living situation of the underclass of Britain shortly before the World War Two.Originating from drama,the concept of "role" refers to a set of individual behavior patterns that is related with certain social status or identity and is in line with social requirements in the system of social relationship.When individual's behavior pattern cannot satisfy role expectation and role norm,or when individual's self-expectation is in conflict with reality under the restriction of living environments and the individual factors,individuals would suffer from discomforts and generate role predicament in the process of role playing.Combining with the specific social and historical context of 1930s in Britain,this thesis centers on the three different social roles of Pinkie and explores his role predicament,and then to dig out the social realistic meaning.Introduction sorts out the studies on Brighton Rock both at home and abroad and briefly introduces role theory and the significance of this thesis.And then three questions are raised:As a gang leader,why does Pinkie feel anxious about his role status?While playing the husband role,why does Pinkie feel repulsive for the role relationship with Rose?As a Roman Catholic,what kind of ambivalent role behaviors does Pinkie present?Chapter one focuses on Pinkie's anxiety about his vulnerable role status as a gang leader.After Kite's death,Pinkie assumes the leadership and plays the role of gang leader.But his leading role is challenged by the rival and the gang members.The rival Colleoni who is superior in wealth and power despises Pinkie and suppresses Pinkie and his gang continuously.The gang members question Pinkie's role quality and distrust him.Under double pressure,Pinkie is caught in the anxiety due to the vulnerable role status.Chapter two aims to explore Pinkie's repulsion for his relationship with Rose as a husband.Superficially,Pinkie pretends to be intimate with Rose.But in fact he cannot adapt to the role of a husband.Influenced by the traumatic effects in his childhood,Pinkie is afraid of sexuality in marriage.He is incapable of loving others and rejects the pure love of Rose.Chapter three mainly analyzes Pinkie's ambivalent role behaviors as a Catholic.On the one hand,Pinkie chooses to be damned in the face of threats of survival.He resists the world by evil means and continues to commit moral sins.On the other hand,Pinkie still has a religious sense based on his childhood Catholic indoctrination.He longs for spiritual belonging and wishes to get redemption through confession and repentance.The conclusion points out that Pinkie's role predicament is the consequence of indifferent social environment,alienated family relationship and distorted personality of Pinkie himself.Greene's description of the protagonist's role predicament realistically reflects the living circumstances and spirit status of the underclass of Britain between the two world wars,and conveys Greene's humanistic concern to the lower-class people.Meanwhile,the story ending with Pinkie's annihilation also expresses Greene's ardent hope for positive interaction between people and society as well as his earnest wish for harmonious society.