On The American Jew’s Paranoia In The Book Of Daniel

E.L.Doctorow is a contemporary American Jewish novelist.In 1971,his third novel The Book of Daniel was published,by which Doctorow was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship the next year and was recognized as a writer of the first rank from then on.It is worth noting that the novel,which is based on the famous Rosenberg case in the American history,not only unfolds the author’s reflection on this worldwide known political event,but also implies his deliberation on the living predicament encountered by American Jews and a way out in that age.The protagonist Daniel Isaacson narrates in the first person the course of his pursuit of the truth of the Isaacson case that happened over a decade ago in the sixties when the anti-Vietnam war was heightened,through which the living predicament of the American Jews at that time was disclosed.It is observed that a strong negative feeling of paranoia shows between lines in Daniel’s narration.Seeing from the perspective of ugly feelings,which is proposed by American scholar Sianne Ngai in the namesake monograph,the thesis,with the focus on Daniel’s strong feeling of paranoia,intends to demonstrate Daniel’s paranoia,look into the sociocultural causes that underlies this feeling,and analyzes how Daniel breaks through the individual and ethnic predicament propelled by his paranoia.The thesis consists of five parts.The introduction involves the brief background information about Doctorow and his The Book of Daniel,literature review from home and abroad,the definition and operating system of paranoia,and the framework of the thesis.Chapter one presents the manifestations of Daniel’s paranoia,which can be categorized as the suspicion upon his family,the megalomania in the Jewish community,and the conspiratorial delusions about the mainstream white society.Chapter two makes an analysis of the sociocultural causes that contribute to Daniel’s paranoia.Specifically speaking,the paranoia derives from the economic injustice that was imposed on Jews in the first half of the 20^thcentury,the political injustice resulting from the paranoid persecution against communism in American society that was enveloped in the Cold War atmosphere,and the social injustice caused by the revived cultural prejudice where Jews were identified as communists.Chapter three examines the positive effect and constructive power hidden in Daniel’s paranoia.Under the effect of paranoia,Daniel is empowered to sharply detect social evils and then to expose and resist the injustices in joint effort with his family,ethnic group and the mainstream white society,in which process Daniel gradually realizes his reunion,reconciliation,and reintegration with them respectively based on emotional identification.In the conclusion,it is pointed out that though Daniel is shrouded in a strong feeling of paranoia,the negative feeling diagnoses the living predicament faced by American Jews,revealing the social ills that existed in the American society.Meanwhile,driven by paranoia,Daniel,in reflection,is activated to fight against injustice in American society in unification with his family,ethnic group and white fellowmen,and hence gradually resolves his emotional crisis and gets out of the predicament.