An Interpretation Of The Brooklyn Follies From The Perspective Of Sartre’s Existentialism

Paul Auster(1947 —)is one of the most innovative contemporary American novelists whose works have been translated into more than thirty languages worldwide.His best-known novel,The Brooklyn Follies,won the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2006.This novel describes ordinary people’s existence and redemption amid family crises in New York society,expressing Auster’s concern for people’s spiritual condition and existential issues in capitalist society.Based on Sartre’s existentialism,this thesis analyzes the causes and solutions to the characters’ existential dilemma in The Brooklyn Follies from three aspects:absurdity,alienation,and free choice.Firstly,With Sartre’s theory,“the world is absurd,life is painful”,the thesis explores the characters’ existential background and presents their absurd existence.Secondly,the cause of the characters’ existential dilemma is examined through the characters’ alienation under the bad faith and their interpersonal alienation under the “Hell is other people”.Finally,the characters’ free choices and results indicate that only when freely choose and take responsibility for themselves and others can they break the restriction in the absurd world,builds a harmonious relationship with others to realize meaningful existence.Interpreting the work from the perspective of Sartre’s existentialism can help readers better apprehend the thoughts of Auster’s humanistic concern.The emphasis on the individual’s existence further calls for people to build harmonious relationships with others by taking responsibility for achieving meaningful existence.