英语论文范文THE SYMBOLISM OF IDENTITY IN THE NOVEL.doc

英语论文范文-The Symbolism of Identity in the Novel 英语论文范文-The Symbolism of Identity in the NovelSymbolism, one of the exquisite arts embodied in the novel, helps to reveal the affluent themes. Ralph Ellison incorporates numerous symbols to draw the outline of major characters and express their inner minds via depicting the concrete objects. The Identity-Seeking course of the invisible man encompasses the Identity crisis or the failure of Identity to the quest for Identity. The nameless man underwent a lot of incidents and was imposed on enormous identities by others, and came to the partial acceptance of his Identity. Ellison enumerates various identities in the novel by way of symbolism, which vividly depicts a common man’s quest for Identity in the universal theme.2.1 The Definition of IdentityIdentity, one of the important concepts of the western culture, mainly means the acceptance of individuality and the specific social culture. It comprises the Individual Identity, Collective Identity, Self Identity and Social Identity. In a broader sense, Identity is the collective Identity’s choice between superior and inferior culture, with the corresponding shock and spiritual suffering (赵一凡等 2006: 465).W.E.B Du Bois thought that African-Americans face with the conflict from the Black and American Identities. The Blacks try to internalize the American Identity and discern their Black Identity. “One ever feels his twoness—an American a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two un-reconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (1984: 3).We know that one’s Identity is formed through the relationship with others, just as what Ellison said: “what makes you a Negro is having grown up under certain culture conditions, of having undergone an experience that shapes your culture” (net 2007). Because of their misery or even so-called disaster, the Black people are more endurable, brave and diligent; because of the unique culture, Black people have their psychology and peculiar circumstances under which they have lived generation by generation.2.2 The Identity Crisis in the NovelSince the World War,the holocaust of the Jews held by the Nazi, the terror of wars and the appearance of nuclear bomb, have aroused doubts of people for the traditional value advocated by the Capitalists. People saw the world as the absurd, hostile, unknown and saw human being as the lonely one. The alienation and Identity Crisis came out the most important theme in their daily life.In the absurd world, men become more and more alienated with each other. The invisible man has no other relatives but his grand father. His nuclear family is essentially nonexistent in both physical and psychological sense. When he is kicked out of the college, he does not go home or ask for comfort from his parents. He has no true friends or classmates as well. It seems that he lives in his world alone, keeping no contact with others. No one cares about his life. In the brotherhood or in the family, he is a lonely man, and also he can not get any help from anyone when he is forced to live underground. The only kin to him is his grandfather, who only leaves him death bed words. The closest friend of his is Mary who helps and takes care of him, but the nameless boy leaves her without telling her where he is going. In short, he has no real home, no real family and no friends.Moreover, he even is the “invisible man”, without his own identity but the identities imposed by others independent of his own mind. At last, he acknowledges that he is no body but one committed by others to do something. The Identity process can be divided into three steps: firstly, he should doubt whether he has an identity; secondly, he may suffer from identity crisis; thirdly, he can make commitments. The failure in seeking the identity makes him lose the direction and land in a predicament of identity crisis, with which he begins his arduous quest for identity.2.3 The Quest for Identity The novel chronicles the growth journey of a young man, which is actually a search for his own identity and the meaning of his existence. It includes “the classic novelistic theme: the search of the innocent hero for knowledge of reality, self and society” (Chase, 2005: 35).In the novel Invisible Man, we can make a tentative classification to three parts of his quest for Identity and discuss each symbolic meaning.1)From Innocent to ExperienceThroughout the book, the invisible man moves from innocence to experience, from repression to expression. He starts out as an ignorant young student. At the end of the novel, he accepts his identity as being an invisible man and sees that people like his grandfather. Trueblood, Mary and he himself are of ultimate value. The experience is gained by a series of disillusionments he undergoes during his journey. The more conscious a person of his cultural, personal and national history, the freer he becomes.