摘 要

成长小说《天使，望故乡》是二十世纪美国小说家托马斯·沃尔夫长篇自传体小说系列的第一部也是最负盛名的一部，同一系列的另外三部分别为《时间与河流》、《网与石》、《你不能再回家》。小说被看作是一部讲述了主人公尤金从出生到成年的心路历程的故事。主人公在出生那一刻起深感孤独的痛苦，并最终选择离开家乡去探索未知的世界。本文则着重分析了主人公尤金如何一步步走出孤独去追求独立与自由，分别从家庭、学校和社会三个角度剖析主人公的成长过程，并进一步揭示了作者沃尔夫塑造尤金这一形象的积极意图——为小说中弥漫的灰暗色彩增添一抹暖意和一丝希望。

关键词：《天使，望故乡》；孤独；自由；独立

Abstract

As the first and the most renown novel written by the famous American writer Thomas Wolfe from the early 20th century, Look Homeward, Angel considered both autobiographical and with a strong touch of personal development, has brought Wolfe huge reputation, with three other novels published as a set including Of Time and the River, The Web and the Rock, You Can’t Go Home Again. The novel Look Homeward, Angel can be seen as a psychological formation of its protagonist, Eugene Gant, whom the character himself believed was born as a stranger into a world of lost and finally decided to leave his hometown for the exploration of unknown, new world outside. This paper will define the value of this novel by focusing on how Eugene managed to walk out of this fate of solitude for the pursuit of freedom and independence, from three perspectives of family, school, and society. Furthermore, the writer’s intention of forming the character of Eugene is discussed in this paper afterwards, which is to lighten the shade of loneliness permeating throughout this novel with a touch of warm and a ray of hope.

Key Words: Look Homeward, Angel; solitude; freedom; independence

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Thomas Wolfe and his works 1

1.2 Literature review 2

2 Growth in Solitude 5

2.1 Born into a broken family 5

2.2 Alienated and out of place at school 7

2.3 Homeless and famished after entering the society 8

3 Pursuit of Independence and Freedom 10

4 Eugene: A Ray of Hope in a Lost World 12

5 Conclusions 13

References 14

Acknowledgements 15

Road to Independence in Solitude: Eugene in Look Homeward, Angel

1 Introduction

In literary criticism, bildungsroman, a more technical term for coming-of-age story, is “a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood, in which character change is extremely important” (Dinitia, 2000). Of all themes that may appear in that genre, growth in solitude is among the ones most favored by novelists. Born in the early twentieth century, Thomas Wolfe was considered a real master of language after the publication of his first novel Look Homeward, Angel, in which the writer’s passion for expressing himself and his skillful mastery of language, as well as the solitary life of its protagonist, Eugene, have won him great reputation, and incurred strict criticism at the same time.

The intention of this paper conducts an interpretation of the text Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe on the pursuit for mental independence and freedom of its protagonist Eugene Gant’s, from three perspectives of family, school and society, aiming to further explore Eugene’s unique personality of perseverance and facing at future with sanguinity. Therefore, an elaboration on the themes of living in estrangement and isolation is carried on, as well as revealing the writer’s purpose to present to us such a gloomy yet inspiring and charming figure of Eugene Gant.

1.1 Thomas Wolfe and his works