摘　要

在文学研究中，大多数研究者都把目光聚集在作品的主题思想、人物性格分析及与当时的政治背景相关的问题上，只有少数研究者将目光转移到两部相似作品的主题研究中去。本文通过对《西游记》和《天路历程》两部作品中各自所受苦难的分析，通过不同的生活和宗教背景来反映文章的主题。文章主要包括以下内容：1、简介《天路历程》的作者约翰•班扬和《西游记》的作者吴承恩及其作品；2、阐述古今中外研究者对两篇文章的评论；3、举例说明两篇文章中主人公不断遇到的苦难和其代表的意象；4、结合作者当时的生活和宗教背景阐述两篇文章各自的主题，并分析其差异性；5、最后得出结论：不同的宗教信仰和生活背景对人的影响。

关键词：主题；差异性；苦难；宗教背景
 
Abstract

From previous time to now, on the contemporary researches of literatures, most of the researchers gather their eyes to the theme of famous books, the analysis of personal characters and the political background on that time, only a few persons pay attention to the theme of two similar books but not those which mentioned above. On this paper, the writer analyzes the difficulties which the protagonists suffering on the way to their destination on the two books-Journey to the West and Pilgrim’s Progress to reflect their different themes because of different background of life and religions. This paper mainly includes these aspects: 1.Briefly introduce the writer of Pilgrim’s Progress-John Bunyan and the writer of Journey to the West-Cheng’en Wu, also including the two related works; 2.Expound most researchers’ comments on these two novels at all times; 3.Giving examples to the suffering that the protagonists on the two books have experienced continually on their way to the final places; 4.In combination with the two writers’ different setting of life and religion to state each theme on them, and analysis the differences between; 5.At last, coming to the conclusion: the influence on the person by the different religions and the background of life. This paper using the dissimilar way with the professional and normative language to express the different themes can let the readers feel clear and simple to experience this paper’s importance. 

Key words: the theme; diversity; suffering; religious background

1 Introduction
Many people know that the Journey to the West and the Pilgrim’s Progress have made so great effect on the society. The writer Cheng’en Wu was one of the Chinese four famous novels--Journey to the west original writer. Journey to the west is so famous that it has been translated by more than ten languages, such as Japanese, English, French, German, Russian and so on. Pilgrim’s Progress also is one of English famous religious novel which was worked by John Bunyan, an England Christian writer and evangelist. These two novels were produced in two different times, so the writing setting is different. In this review, it aims to highlight the sufferings on their going to the west to find out the difference between the two articles, then with the difference, the reflection of the society on that day will be resulted.