梦想，友谊，孤独-斯坦贝克《人鼠之间》主题解读_英语论文

Dream, Friendship, Loneliness: Interpretation of the Themes of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men 

摘要

约翰·斯坦贝克（1902-1968）是20世纪美国著名的现实主义作家。他熟悉社会底层人民的生活，许多作品都以他们为主人公，表现了对底层人民的深切同情。《人鼠之间》是斯坦贝克的一部中篇力作，描述了美国经济大萧条时期四处流浪的农业工人的悲惨生活，表现了对农业季节工和遭受欺凌的人们的同情。小说主人公乔治和莱尼是一对好友，他们唯一的梦想是拥有一小块属于自己的土地，从而摆脱流浪之苦。这也是当时许多农业季节工的“美国梦”之一。然而由于社会歧视和资产阶级的压迫，底层人民饱受孤独的折磨，他们的梦想注定成为泡影。本文分析《人鼠之间》的三大主题：难以实现的梦想、理想化的友谊、无法避免的孤独。围绕三大主题，探析年龄、种族、性别等社会歧视对人性的戕害以及底层人民为摆脱孤独而渴望友谊的自我拯救。此外，本文还剖析了象征、反讽、类比等文学手法，分析并展示这些文学手法是如何表现三大主题的。本文通过分析人物的性格和命运，总结造成人物悲剧命运的主因，引发人们重新审视自身的生活态度，感悟生命的本质。

关键词：人鼠之间，主题，梦想，友谊，孤独

Abstract

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) is a famous American realistic writer in the 20th century. Due to the influence of his life experience, he is familiar with the life of the underclass. Most of his works take the bottom class as the main characters and show great sympathy to them. Of Mice and Men is Steinbeck’s medium-length masterpiece. This novella depicts miserable lives of those wandering farm workers during the Great Depression in the USA, and expresses Steinbeck’s deep sympathy to the ranch workers and suffering people. The two main characters George and Lennie are good friends. Their only dream is to possess a small patch of land of their own, and get rid of the suffering of vagrancy. This is also one of the “American dreams” that many ranch workers possess at that time. However, due to social discrimination and oppression from the capitalists, the lower-class people are tortured by loneliness. Their dreams are doomed to be visionary. This thesis analyzes three themes: the unattainable dream, the idealized friendship and the inevitable loneliness. Focusing on the three themes, the thesis explores how cruel the ageism, racism and sexism destroy humanity, and how hard the underclass long for friendship and try to rescue themselves from loneliness. In addition, the author dissects the novel and digs the three themes by analyzing some literary techniques, such as symbolism, sarcasm, analogy and so on. Moreover, by analyzing the personalities and destinies of the characters, this thesis concludes the major reasons for their miserable life, draws people’s attention to have self-examination towards their life attitudes, and eventually makes people think about the essence of life. 

Key words: Of Mice and Men，themes, dream, friendship, loneliness.

Contents

Introduction 1

1. About John Steinbeck 4

2. A Brief Introduction to Of Mice and Men 5

3. The Unattainable Dreams 7

3.1 George and Lennie’s Dream 8

3.2 Candy’s Dream 9

3.3 Crooks’ Dream 10

3.4 Curley’s Wife’s Dream 11

4. The Idealized Friendship 11

4.1 George and Lennie’s Friendship 12

4.2 George and Slim’s Friendship 14

4.3 Candy’s Yearning for Friendship 15

4.4 Crooks’ Craving for Friendship 16

5. The Inevitable Loneliness 16

5.1 George and Lennie’s Loneliness 17

5.2 Candy’s Loneliness 18

5.3 Crooks’ Loneliness 19

5.4 Curley’s Wife’s Loneliness 19

Conclusion 20

References 23