On Indeterminacy In Gone Girl

Gone Girl is a marriage mystery novel written by American bestseller writer Gillian Flynn.After publication,this novel is positively received by the literary critics who praised particularly the unreliable narration,tortuous plot and suspense depiction.The novel depicts the struggling marital relationship between the seemingly perfect couple the Dunnes.The wife Amy disappears on the fifth wedding anniversary.However,all kinds of evidences lead the suspicion to the husband Nick.The plot develops around Amy's disappearance case.And Amy and Nick,as narrators emerging alternately,tell the events and psychological activities that they go through from respective angles.Two diametrically opposite narrations confront readers with the mist of indeterminacy.Readers cannot simply depend on the unreliable narrations and see through the complex and vague characters.They can only piece together a comparatively complete plot through analyzing and arranging fragmented information.Thus this novel is a typical postmodern one in which indeterminacy is manifested incisively and vividly.This thesis is roughly divided into three parts.Part one is an introduction which is mainly the brief introduction of the author Gillian Flynn and her novels,literature review of Gone Girl in home and abroad and a general summary of Ihab Hassan's theory of indeterminacy.Part two,as the main body of this thesis,includes Chapter Two to Four to study on indeterminacy in this novel from characterization,narration and plot.In Chapter Two,this essay will analyze the indeterminacy in characterization from images of the Dunnes in each other's eyes,in intimated people's eyes and in the media.In Chapter Three,the author will explore indeterminacy in narration from unreliable narrators and narrative voices.In Chapter Four,indeterminacy of the plot of this novel will be analyzed from fragmented structure and confusing time order.Part three is conclusion.Based on indeterminacy theory of Ihab Hassan,this essay will analyze indeterminacy in Gone Girl thoroughly from three aspects,that is,characterization,narration and plot.It can provide a research angle for this novel and a new approach for readers' understanding.