| Jerome David Salinger(1919-2010)is one of the most important American writers after the 1950 s.His novels broke the relatively quiet state of the American literary world at that time and showed the universal spiritual dilemma of Americans in the 20 th century.It had an important influence on the development of American literature and culture.Scholars at home and abroad have used thematic research,image research,narrative art analysis and other methods to study Salinger and his novels,mainly focusing on the novel "the Catcher in the Rye".This paper takes Salinger’s short story collection as the main research object,explores the spiritual dilemma and salvation thought in the novels,and explores the humanistic care spirit and social historical value contained in them.The main body of the thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter mainly studies the origin of the spiritual dilemma in Salinger’s novels.Salinger pays attention to the spiritual plight of people in his time,which is closely related to his war experience,his social environment and the spiritual tradition of the Jewish nation.The second chapter mainly explores the presentation of the spiritual dilemma in Salinger’s novels.In Salinger’s novels,the spiritual dilemma of the characters is mainly manifested as a strong sense of loneliness,the loss of "self" and the resolution of life value.Among them,the strong sense of loneliness mainly shows that the characters have difficulty in communication in the relationship between husband and wife,parent-child relationship and social relationship;The loss of self is mainly manifested as the loss of subjectivity due to the influence of war experience,education experience or consumer social atmosphere.The resolution of the value of life is mainly manifested in the characters’ numb attitude towards life and strong world-weariness.The third chapter mainly studies the redemption of the characters’ spiritual predicament by the Oriental culture thought in Salinger’s novels.Among them,the thought of "Brahmani-identity" in Hindu culture plays an important role in improving interpersonal relationship and getting rid of loneliness.The idea of "action Vedanta" is helpful in helping people get rid of negative desires.The pursuit of the essence of things in Zen culture is conducive to the reversal of the utilitarian education idea,and leads people to face the reality of life;The thought of dispelling dualistic opposition is conducive to the reconciliation of individual’s inner contradiction,surpasses the spiritual dilemma,and realizes the true freedom of mind.The idea of "unity of heaven and man" in Taoism is conducive to purifying the complicated thoughts.The return of "Tao" to "quiet" is conducive to people’s return to the clear state of mind and get rid of the pain of the soul.The fourth chapter mainly studies the significance of the spiritual dilemma in Salinger’s novels.From the literary point of view,Salinger’s novel creation not only broke the silence of the American literary world at that time,but also opened up a new direction of literary creation.From the perspective of social history,Salinger’s novel creation not only reveals the spiritual dilemma faced by Americans in the 20 th century,but also provides the salvation way of spiritual transcendence for human beings.At the same time,Salinger critically demonstrated the spiritual characteristics of Eastern cultural thoughts in his novels,and his characters gradually gained spiritual Epiphany through the understanding of Eastern cultural thoughts,which had a profound impact on the spread of Eastern culture in the United States.By analyzing the writing of the spiritual dilemma in Salinger’s novels,this paper presents the spiritual dilemma contained in Salinger’s novels and the eastern way of redemption,explores the meaning of the writing of the spiritual dilemma,reveals Salinger’s humanistic spirit of concern,and provides reference and inspiration for human beings to get out of the spiritual dilemma. |
