探索老年人对宠物的依赖感情-基于梅·萨藤《八十二岁日记》的文本分析_英语论文

Reliance on Pets in Old Age: with Focus on May Sarton’s At Eighty-Two

摘要

梅·萨藤来自美国,是一位非常高产的日记体作家、小说家和诗人。日记和回忆录是她各类作品当中最为优秀的部分，而《八十二岁日记》则是她所著的最后一本日记。在这本书中，萨藤的猫被频繁地提及并且被视作是她不可或缺的同伴。因此，本文对《八十二岁日记》这本书、特别是有关萨藤和她的猫的描述部分进行文本分析，并从下几个角度来探究她偏爱于养猫的原因。首先，本文对萨藤的生活框架进行定义，讨论她的猫皮埃罗在她生活中所扮演的角色。其次，萨藤曾养过狗，但在她生命最后的几年当中，她选择只养猫，这其中的原因将通过对于猫狗特点的比较和分析而得出。此外，文章还从不同的角度分析了皮埃罗对萨藤日常生活的影响，体现出这只猫在萨藤生活中的重要地位。通过阅读本文，老年人或许能知道养什么样的宠物更适合自己，从而提升自己的生活质量，而年轻读者也能从中对老年生活有较为全面的理解和认识。

关键词：梅·萨藤；《八十二岁日记》；宠物；猫；陪伴

Abstract

May Sarton is a prolific American journalist, novelist and poet. Among all her works, her best work lies in her journals and memoirs, and At Eighty-Two is her last journal book. In this book, Sarton’s cat as her indispensable companion appears frequently. Therefore, this thesis ties to reveal Sarton’s preference to cats based on the literary analysis of At Eighty-Two, especially the descriptions about Sarton and her pets, from the following aspects. Firstly, this paper explains the definition of life framework for Sarton, and discusses the role Sarton’s cat Pierrot plays in her life. And since Sarton has raised dogs before but finally gives up in her final years, there must be some reasons for the change, which will be discussed by comparing different characteristics between cats and dogs. Moreover, this paper also analyzes Pierrot’s influence on Sarton’s daily life from different angles, showing his pivotal status. By reading this thesis, people in advanced age can be inspired to find out what kind of pets are more suitable to keep as companions to raise their life quality and young readers can have an overall impression on seniors’ life. 

Keywords: May Sarton; At Eighty-two; pet; cat; companion 

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Brief Introduction of May Sarton’s Background 1

1.2 Literature review 1

1.3 The Purpose and Structure of the Paper 3

2.Sarton’s life framework 5

2.1 The definition of life framework for Sarton 5

2.2 Pets as a component of Sarton’s life framework 7

3. The Reflections of the differences between cats and dogs 8

3.1 Sorts of pets 8

3.2 The differences between dogs and cats 8

3.3. Different attitudes towards cats and dogs 9

4. The Cat Pierrot 10

4.1 Pierrot’s influence on Sarton’s mood 10

4.1.1 Strong emotional swings caused by Pierrot ….10

4.1.2 Comfort given by the companion of Pierrot 11

4.2 Pierrot’s importance for Sarton 11

5. Conclusion 14

References 15