Alienation And Salvation In The Sihpping News

The Shipping News is one of the masterpieces of American novelist Annie Proulx,telling a story of a middle-aged man’s experience of frustration and then regaining his identity in his ancestral land,Newfoundland.This paper is going to analyze the alienation and salvation in this book from a Marxist perspective.The society in The Shipping News is severely invaded by capitalism,thus leading to various aspects of alienation,including alienation between human and labor,alienation of interpersonal relationship,as well as alienation between human and nature.Alienation between human and labor in this novel can be displayed through the subjectification of labor and the objectification of human beings.Quoyle and Wavey achieve their salvation through the realization of species-being as free producers,freely producing products of social and artistic value instead of only monetary value.Alienation of interpersonal relationship is shown by its commoditization and the disadvantaged group’s marginalization.Quoyle realizes his salvation through reconstruction of emotional bond.In terms of alienation between human and nature in this novel,in both New York and Newfoundland,people tend to cast off their reverence towards nature,which leads to serious industrialization and over-exploitation.That is the disenchantment of nature.The harmonious state between human and nature should be “re-enchantment”,which means people hold veneration towards nature and thus get refreshing power from it.The salvation of alienation is mainly achieved through the emphasis of emotional aspect,but the complexity of anti-alienation lies in its indispensability of capital.In the individual aspect,Quoyle’s and Agnis’ s economic independence sets the foundation of their well-being;as for the social tendency,people are moving towards places with more capital.To achieve salvation,there should be not only individual efforts but also social reformation.An ideal society is established by abolishing private ownership and realizing Communism.Without social reformation,the struggle against alienation will be only superficial and one-sided,but never be comprehensive or thorough regardless of individual efforts.