《鸡蛋的胜利》中美国梦的解读
毕业论文关键词：《鸡蛋的胜利》；美国梦；破灭
Abstract
The Triumph of the Egg is one of the famous short stories of Sherwood Anderson. According to the eyes of a naïve child, the short story presents a miserable and funny predicament of an ordinary family in American Midwest with a humorous tone. Under the influence of industrialization and the encouragement of the mother, the father gives up the simple and happy life and becomes a man who has American ambition: getting up in the world. Therefore, he is engaged in raising chicken and the restaurant business, and hopes to succeed. However, the failure of the egg trick finally disillusions father’s American dream absolutely. The paper, according to analyzing the tragedy of the story, will unfold the picture of the society at that time; disclose the impacts of the fabricated American dream on the Americans and the detriments of the young generations.
Key words: The Triumph of the Egg; American dream; disillusionment
An Analysis of American Dream in The Triumph of the Egg
Contents
摘 要 i
Abstract ii
I. Introduction 1
II. The American Dream 2
2.1 The Origin of the American Dream 2
2.2 The Definition of the American Dream 3
2.3 The Representation of American Dream in American Literature 3
III. The Disillusionment of the American Dream in The Triumph of the Egg 5
3.1 The Emergence of the Father’s American Ambition 5
3.2 The Discomfiture of the Father’s American Dream 5
IV. The Impact of the American Dream on the Young Generation 9
V. Conclusion 11
Bibliography 14
Acknowledgement 15
I. Introduction
The triumph of the Egg is singled out to be one of the most successful works of Sherwood Anderson, an American writer, who possesses a significant position in American’s Modern Literature in the twenty century (Irving 168), and is called “the father of our generation” by William Faulkner (Bradbury, Malcolm and David Palmers 122), and “the writer’s writer” by Malcolm Cowley (Zhang 147). In this short story, the narrator, through the eye of an artless child, describes the father who gives up the happy life as a farm-hand and becomes an ambitious man. The plot is quite simple. In order to rise in the world, the father begins his first adventure: raising chicken on a farm, but it turns out to be badly. After that, the family moves into the town and embarks in the restaurant business. At the same time, the father has great expectations on the grotesque chickens he brings from the farm. He wishes to achieve his goals by showing the grotesques soaked in the alcohol and playing egg tricks to the customers. Unluckily, it fails and discomfits the father’s dream.
The American dream is first mentioned by James Truslow Adams (American historian) in his book Epic of America in the early 1930s. In a broad sense, the American Dream is a kind of cultural ideological trend and behavior which based on material success (Su 72). Its appearance encourages the Americans to work hard to realize their desires to get fame and fortune in the world. This idea almost permeates every corner of the American society. There is no exception that the term “American Dream” becomes a recurring theme in American literature. However, the American dream mirrors different images of American protagonists at different times and social classes and ethnic groups. As the time flies, these images in literature vary from pioneers to a New Man or a loser (Fan 60). No matter what the result is, there is still millions of Americans pursuing their dreams and wanting to rise in the world through hard struggles.
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