The Bird In The Painting,the People In The Cages

Donna Tartt(1963-)is a famous contemporary American writer.Famous writer Barry Hannah once called her “a rare genius,a literary star”.She has won numerous awards for her outstanding work and “The Goldfinch” won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 2013.The novel tells “the story of a sad boy and a famous painting that escaped disaster”.Theo’s mother was killed in the terrorist explosion.He was immersed in the great pain and psychological depression and could not extricate himself,just like the goldfinch in the famous painting.From then on,haunted by nightmares,he went from the childhood world to the adult world.In the face of a completely strange environment and complex interpersonal relationships,he became alienated.His spirit became more and more empty,his existence gradually alienated,and his behavior became incompetent.His spiritual world suffered a devastating blow,and he was haunted by a sense of frustration.In the past,researches on The Goldfinch were mainly focused on growth theme,inter-textual interpretation,existentialism,historicism,psychoanalysis and eco-criticism,but rarely on spiritual ecology.Therefore,this thesis puts forward and defines the spiritual ecology,analyzes the protagonist’s spiritual ecological pollution performance and his solutions,so as to provide reference for modern people,so that they can get spiritual salvation,and realize the significance and value of human existence.Mr.Lu Shuyuan,a famous scholar in China,believes that human existence is not only a natural biological existence,but also a social existence and at the same time,human existence is more of a spiritual existence.Only through the existence of spirituality can man embody the value and significance of being a human being.The development and evolution of spirituality will become the goal of human beings.The internal mechanism of spirituality will be the support of human world.Based on Lu Shuyuan’s theory of spiritual ecology,this thesis studies the living state of the protagonist who are in the spiritual pollution from the perspectives of spiritual vacuum,alienation and incompetence.It holds that only by stepping out of the spiritual vacuum,adhering to the bottom line and principle of life and enhancing mutual understanding with others,deepening the deeper understanding for love and family and bravely facing the real world,can the protagonist just like “a bird in the cage” and “the man in the painting” truly restore the damaged spiritual world and rebuild himself.Specifically speaking,the thesis first shows the hero’s spiritual vacuum performance from three aspects of trauma symptoms,the lack of security and fantasy love,and lists two solutions to the hero’s possession of the goldfinch and indulgence in depravity.These are two negative teaching materials,which don’t play the role of optimizing the spiritual ecological environment.On the contrary,they make it worse,and the second and third manifestations of the imbalance of spiritual ecology are produced.Then the thesis shows the alienation of the protagonist from three aspects: the alienation between man and nature,the alienation between man and others,and the alienation between man and himself,and lists two solutions: seeking love and returning to family,which makes the protagonist deeply realize the value of existence.Finally,the thesis shows the protagonist’s incompetence from three aspects: the inability to recognize himself,the indifference to the outside world,and the helplessness to death.It also lists two solutions to escape from the “fallen city” and return to the goldfinch,and finally achieves the escape and liberation in body and spirit.Through the deep analysis of the three aspects of spiritual pollution,we can draw the conclusion that love and art save life.