无处安放的灵魂—简析《林中之死》

2017-11-24

海外文摘·艺术 2017年12期

关键词：陇东庆阳西安交通大学

（陇东学院外国语学院，甘肃庆阳 745000）

艺术 ART

无处安放的灵魂—简析《林中之死》

石潘

（陇东学院外国语学院，甘肃庆阳 745000）

Death in the Woods is regarded as one of Anderson’s finest and featured novelette. It aims to deal with the relationship between main characters and death them.

isolation, grotesque

0 Introduction

Death in the Woods is considered as one of Sherwood Anderson’s finest short fiction narrated by an unnamed man whose memory is haunted by the old woman in his village. The old woman is adopted by the ruthless German couples as a worker on the farm. After her marriage, she is abused by her husband who is irresponsible for their family.All the heavy burdens are taken by the poor, old woman. She is busy with all kinds of feeding work. Experiencing the life-long hard working,eventually, her body is found by the hunter in the woods.

1 Analysis of the old woman

The main character-- an old, lonely woman lives on the farm near the town of the narrator’s birth place. She may be an illegitimate child. As a young orphan, she is adopted by the German employers and ill-treated. The farmer always assaults her at the absence of the mistress. While the mistress has suspected she might have some untold secrets with her husband and abused poor girl. She was so innocent and ignorant that she dedicated her body to another cruel and loveless man. It is imaginable that when she married with Jake Grimes,she might pour all her hopes into the so-called kind-hearted man. Her husband who cares about just the money and alcohol is selfish, greedy and cruel. Bad habits die heart. After the born of their son, the idle one has violent and brutal habits inherited from his father. The young man has served a term in jail. It is whispered that he and his father are thieves. Their illegal behavior caused the hatred in the small-town.

Suffering a lot, she lives in such a lonely and loveless family without love, care, and responsibilities. She has to plan everything to support the whole family. All her life is about getting things fed. She pours all her feeling into the stocks. She feds the pigs so they could grow fat enough to be butchered to get the money or some necessities in return. In winter, the life is more miserable. The eggs reduced and dogs needed to be fed. She is eager to wait for the eggs standing pityingly before the barn.

As the narrator stated her fate is destined to feed animal life. On the German’s farm, she fed the employer’s sexual appetites. On her husband’s farm, she manages with all her energy to keep her family and animals from starvation. Before her death, she goes back from the market in exchange for a little meat and soup bones for her dogs. Even in death, the old woman continues to feed.

“Whatever happened she never said anything.”(Cleanth Brooks, 2004: 206).When her husband and son quarrels and fights over the money issue,she just keeps silent trembling. When her son had an illicit relationship with a woman and brings her to the house, she even had no courage to criticize them. She is obedient to their order. In her personality, she had no awareness of resistance.Her salvation is death. In narrator’s eye, her body was not like the woman of forty, but the one of some charming young girl. Her body was depicted as “so white and lovely, so like marble.”(Cleanth Brooks, 2004: 209). The narrator seems to tell his readers that her soul is revived from her death. Mrs. Grimes is just one of the representatives of the majority of American women who exist on the verge of the rural areas ignored by the whole society. The narrator insists that the woman is “nothing special” and that most people living in rural areas in America have encountered such a woman.

2 Conflict between character and society

Above the analysis of the character in this short fiction, theme appears from the surface of the iceberg.

American history in the 20th century passed from a rural to a predominantly industrial society.(常耀信, 2003:248) In Anderson’s writing, people are alienated, lonely grotesques longing for love.She lives on the edge of the society which conventions confined women. They were ignorant for lack of awareness of resistance. The industrial civilization destructed the bridge between family and society.There is no love. Alienation and want of love and understanding caused their tragic fate. She takes her silence for granted that she is just the one who is feeding all things surrounded her. In that strange society, it seems that her obedience is the right thing to do. No one condemns the despicable behavior.No communication between people.

Anderson once said that he was hunger to see the beneath the surface of lives.（李公昭，2000:35）It seems to see a ray of hope in the fiction. When people see the marble white body, they show their compassion. She is finally free from feeding destiny.Because her family members give alibis, the town disagrees with their lies and drives them away.Anderson tried to convey that love is still in people’s hearts, although death is inevitable, there has still the desire for love among human beings. .