被自由束缚的帕蒂-论乔纳森的《自由》_英语论文

A Brief Study of Patty in Jonathan’s Freedom: A Person Kidnapped by Freedom 

摘要

美国作家乔纳森·弗兰岑的小说具有强烈的时代气息和思想深度，备受各界关注。他的新作《自由》亦是一本现实主义巨作，其中描写了美国中产阶级家庭错综复杂的生活故事，戏剧性地揭示了无度的自由带给人的诱惑与负担。本论文以女主人公帕蒂为主线探究小说主题，解读其现实意义，帕蒂在追求个人自由的过程中缺乏正确的认知、触碰了道德的底线，以致自由并没有带给她幸福,这种消极的自由反而酿成了她的不幸：家庭关系的破裂、友谊的终结和爱情的死亡。积极自由的状态并不是道德的泛化，而恰恰是人的自律性规范逐渐增强、强制性规范逐渐削弱的状态。现代社会真正需要的是积极自由。

关键词  《自由》  乔纳森弗兰岑  帕蒂  

Abstract

American writer Jonathan Franzen’s novels have attracted world-wide attention for their strong sense of the times and profound views. His latest work Freedom is another realistic masterpiece, which describes the complicated life stories about families in America’s middle class, and reveals the temptation and burdens caused by excessive freedom in a dramatic way. The thesis focuses on the heroine Patty and aims to dig up the theme as the book title implies, and find out the involved practical significance to the real world. Patty crossed the line of morality during her approach of pursuing individual freedom, she was devoid of correct perception about freedom so that she did not earn more happiness. The negative freedom brought about the breakdown of family relations, the fragility of friendship and the death of love. While positive freedom cannot tolerate the degradation of morality, it is a status that self-regulation is enlarging and compulsive rule is minimizing. What a modern society really needs is the kind of positive freedom.

Keywords  Freedom  Jonathan Franzen  Patty 

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Significance of the Study 1

2 Literature Review 2

2.1 Freedom by Jonathan Franzen 2

2.2 Theories about Freedom 3

3 Unhappiness Brought by Patty's Pursuit of Individual Freedom 6

3.1 The Breakdown of Family Relations 6

3.2 The Fragility of Friendships 7

3.3 The Death of Love 8

4 Analysis and Discussion 9

4.1 The Enlargement of Freedom 9

4.2 Necessity for Positive Freedom 9

Conclusion 11

Acknowledgements 12

References 13