Abstract

“As a Christian classic and literary masterpiece which records biblical stories and summarizes the Christian spirit, The Bible provides a wealth of material, classic prototype of the plot and characters for European and American literature.” (Chen Huiliang 2010: 156)The Bible is Faulkner's primer, who was deeply influenced by Christian tradition. Therefore, a Christian color is pervaded in many of his works. “The Evening Sun” is an important short story written by William Faulkner. And the selection of some characters, along with images or themes is inevitably influenced by the Christian classic doctrines of the bible. This paper is aimed to analyze the relationship between the two works from the aspects of main characters, different images, and themes so as to explore what Faulkner wanted to express and advocate---gender inequality and race discrimination and also to display the influence of Bible on Faulkner’s works and deeper cultural connotation.
The first chapter centers upon the analysis of main characters in “The Evening Sun” by comparing them with those in biblical stories so as to explore the writer’s intention. And the second chapter focuses on the similar images in “The Evening Sun” and The Bible in order to dig deeper meaning of applying those images. The last chapter, based on the analysis of the above two chapters, explores the themes in the work: racial discrimination and gender inequality, which shows resemblance with The Bible. Through the discussion and analysis, we can find the influence from The Bible on Faulkner’s creation and his intention to advocate his own voice. 

Key words: The Bible, The Evening Sun, Faulkner, inequality, racial discrimination

摘 要

《圣经》作为基督教的经典，集中概括了基督教内容和精神，为欧美文学作品提供了经典情节和人物原型。《夕阳》是美国现代著名小说家威廉福克纳短篇小说的重点之作，是一部反映美国南方严重种族歧视的小说，讲述了黑人洗衣服南希被白人侮辱，陷入无尽的绝望当中的故事。而《圣经》是深受基督教传统熏陶的福克纳的启蒙读物，是他一生的必读。因此《夕阳》从人物形象的选择和塑造、小说意象及主题等方面都不可避免地受到基督教经典教义的影响。本文从角色，意向以及主题三个方面来探索对比研究《夕阳》中的圣经元素，并以此来探索福克纳想借此出的自己的声音---性别歧视和民族歧视的问题，同时展现圣经对福克纳的影响及更深层次的文化内涵。
论文第一章通过对比《夕阳》中的人物和《圣经》中一些人物的关系，探索福克纳塑造这些人物的目的；论文第二章讨论的文章中一些意向的设置，探索作者安排这些意向的深层意义；在前两章的基础上，第三章主要揭示了作品带有基督教色彩的主题。通过三章节内容的探讨，揭示《圣经》对福克纳创作的影响以及通过在自己的作品中注入圣经元素达到更好地表达自己观点和想法的目的。

关键词：圣经；夕阳；福克纳；不平等；民族歧视