Abstract Philip Roth was born in a middle-class Jewish family in New Jersey, America. During his study, he had read a large number of historical materials about European immigrants and then specialized in writing after graduation. Each of his works caused great repercussions in the literary world and he won many literature awards so he was called the legend of contemporary literature. American pastoral belonged to his late masterpiece, which was the first one of the trilogy, coming out in 1997. Roth began to pay close attention to personal fate and social contact instead of the witty humor comedy style. Next year, he was rewarded the Pulitzer prize for this novel. This novel mainly talked about a Jewish immigrant family’s tragic American Dream during the great Depression to the end of the twentieth century.66339

This paper is pided into five parts altogether. The first part mainly introduces the background of the life of Philip Roth and the inspiration of this novel, American Pastoral, triggering great social discussion. The second part mainly aims at the theme of American Dream, including American Dream, immigrants’ American Dream, Jewish immigrants’ yearn for American Dream and the social conflicts caused by American Dream. The third part focuses on the several important characters in the novel in-depth, especially the third generation of Jewish immigrants in the United States about how Seymour alleviated anxiety under American Dream. The fourth part mainly discusses how Jewish immigrants in American implement their own American Dream with Jewish characteristics under identity anxiety. The last part is a brief summary and expectation.

Key Words: American Dream, American Pastoral, Jewish immigrants, identity anxiety

摘要 菲利普·罗斯出生于美国新泽西州的一个中产阶级的犹太家庭，在他学习期间大量阅读有关 欧洲移民的史料，毕业后专门从事写作。他的每篇作品都在美国文坛上引起广泛的讨论，曾 获美国全国图书奖，国家文学艺术学院奖，欧·亨利奖等等，被称为当代文学传奇。《美国牧 歌》属于罗斯后期的代表作，是美国三部曲中的第一部，于 1997 问世。罗斯不再执着于诙谐 幽默的喜剧手法，开始侧重于个人命运与社会的联系，次年获得普利策奖，可谓经典佳作。 小说讲述了经济大萧条到二十世纪末期间，一个犹太移民家族的美国梦遭遇破灭的悲剧故事。

本篇论文总共分为五部分。第一部分主要介绍菲利普·罗斯的生活背景、《美国牧歌》的灵感 来源以及这部小说所引发的社会讨论。第二部分主要是针对美国梦这一主题展开论述，从美 国人的美国梦，美国移民所追求的美国梦，犹太移民所向往的美国梦以及美国梦所引发的社 会冲突和矛盾这几个方面进行论述。第三部分主要集中于小说里的几位重要人物进行深入分 析，特别是第三代生活在美国的犹太移民西摩尔如何正视抑或缓解身处美国梦衰败下的焦虑。 第四部分主要探讨犹太移民如何在美国梦衰败下处于身份焦虑之中如何带着犹太特性实现自 己的美国梦。最后一部分是简要的总结以及对犹太移民未来生活的期望。

毕业论文关键词：美国梦，美国牧歌，犹太移民，身份焦虑

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

1 Introduction 2

1.1 The Background Information of Philip Roth 2

1.2 The Significance of American Pastoral 3

1.3