On Rural Community Writing In Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here is the ninth novel published by British author Graham Swift(1949-),which is almost built up through the memories of the protagonist Jack.The story describes the survival of Britain ordinary people in the era of globalization around the turn of the century.This thesis analyzes Wish You Were Here with T?nnies’ s community from three perspectives.Firstly,the foundation of traditional rural community is bond with three aspects: kinship(blood),common land(place),and a sense of honor and belonging(spirit).From Jack’s childhood memories,the mother-son love between his mother Vera and his brother Tom and him,the strong brotherly love between him and Tom.Moreover,they worked together on Jebb farmhouse.The sense of family honor and the sense of belonging from hometown united them.Thus Jack conceives an innocent,warm and harmonious rural community.Secondly,this thesis explores the challenge that traditional rural community is facing.The biggest challenge is the disconnection of bonds.The village of Marleston,where Jack lives in,is no longer the pure and undisturbed traditional English farmhouse.With the death of his relatives,the spread of the plagues and the decay of the farmhouse business,the traditional rural community has been facing the destiny of falling apart.With his wife’s persuasion,Jack shifts from his initial natural will to the rational will.Consequently,he moves to the city for a living.Finally,this thesis expounds on the shared future of rural community.With the accelerating process of modernization,urbanization,and globalization,the traditional rural community is on the verge of collapse.People who are forced to be mobile have difficulty in acquiring the sense of belonging in an alien place,which triggers off nostalgia.The fundamental bond of community is the sense of belonging,without which,community is facing a huge challenge.The traditional community is deconstructed by Nancy into the conception of the singularity,and the inaccessible deep communication between the singularities puts Swift in the dilemma of construction and deconstruction.Meanwhile,it can be seen that ordinary people lack the communication and company end up with an indifferent and alienated interpersonal pattern at this transitional era.Through the writing of the rural community in the novel,Swift breaks through the siege of singularity and continues to looking for the modernity in the organic as to establish a shared and co-constructed rural community.