Tài liệu The expression of human survival instinct in english literature

CANTHO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT THE EXPRESSION OF HUMAN SURVIVAL INSTINCT IN ENGLISH LITERATURE B.A.Thesis Supervisors: Nguyễn Thị Nguyên Tuyết, MA Nguyễn Hải Quân, MA Researcher: Tăng Thị Vân Code: 7032561 B.A Class NN0354A3 Course 29 Cantho, June 2007 i CONTENTS Contents ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2. Research aims ........................................................................................................ 2 1.3. Organization of the thesis ..................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 4 2.1. Definition of instinct: ............................................................................................ 4 2.2. Types of Human instinct ...................................................................................... 5 2.2.1. The instinct of civilization: ............................................................................. 5 2.2.2. The instinct of savagery .................................................................................. 5 2.3. What does survival mean in general? ................................................................. 6 2.3.1. Definition of survival....................................................................................... 7 2.3.2. The grades of survival: ................................................................................... 7 2.4. Why should survival instinct be limited to human beings? .............................. 8 2.5. Summaries of the three selected works ............................................................... 9 2.5.1. The summary of Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding................. 9 2.5.2. The summary of Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad .............. 10 2.5.3. The summary of Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte ......................... 11 Chapter 3 Research Methodology .................................................................................. 14 3.1. Research questions .............................................................................................. 14 3.2. Materials .............................................................................................................. 14 3.3. Procedure ............................................................................................................. 14 Chapter 4 Results............................................................................................................. 15 4.1. The expression of human survival instinct in the three selected works......... 15 ii 4.1.2. The expression of the instinct of civilization in the three selected novels ............................................................................................................................. 15 4.1.2.1. The expression of the instinct of civilization in Lord of the Flies ............................................................................................................................ 15 4.1.2.2. The expression of the instinct of civilization in Jane Eyre ................ 18 4.1.2.3. The expression of the instinct of civilization in Heart of Darkness .................................................................................................................... 18 4.1.3. The expression of the instinct of savagery in the three selected works ............................................................................................................................. 19 4.1.3.1. The expression of the instinct of savagery in Lord of the Flies......... 19 4.1.3.2. The expression of the instinct of savagery in Heart of Darkness .................................................................................................................... 20 4.1.4. The struggle between the instinct of civilization and the instinct of savagery ........................................................................................................................ 20 4.1.4.1. The struggle between Ralph and Jack ................................................ 21 4.1.4.2. The struggle between Kurtz and himself............................................ 23 4.2. In what living situation is the human survival instinct clearly depicted? ........................................................................................................................... 25 4.3. What are the effects of survival instinct on human beings? ........................... 26 Chapter 5 Conclusion- Implications- Limitations- and Suggestions for Further Research ............................................................................................................. 28 5.1. Conclusion and Implication ............................................................................... 28 5.2. Limitations ........................................................................................................... 29 5.3. Suggestions for Further Research ...................................................................... 29 References ............................................................................................................................. Appendices ........................................................................................................................... iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I wish to send my deep gratitude to the teaching staff of English Department who taught me enthusiastically from the first year until now and gave me an opportunity to conduct my research. The next person I would like to express my special thanks is Ms. Truong Thi Kim Lien who taught me literature in the third year. Thanks to her lessons, my curiosity toward the theme “human survival instinct” is increased day by day, and it stimulates me to write this paper. Besides, she also provided me with helpful materials related to the topic and taught me how to understand a literary work. Last, I would like to show my deep gratitude to Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyen Tuyet and Mr. Nguyen Hai Quan, who enthusiastically guided me to complete my research. They helped me find out many useful websites, suggested me a lot of interesting ideas, and corrected word choices and errors so that I could finish my paper on time. They particularly devoted their time and energy revising my thesis. v ABSTRACT This paper aims to study how human survival instinct is expressed in English literature as well as what effects it has on human beings. It is a descriptive research in which various viewpoints on human survival instinct are explored. The paper focuses on instinct of civilization and savagery, the two most basic types of human survival instinct. Psychological theory proposed by Sigmund Freud is adopted as the framework for analyzing and contrasting the expression of human survival instinct in three selected novels: Lord of the Flies (William Golding), Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad), and Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte). The research would provide the students majoring in English with deeper understandings about the human survival instinct when they study literature vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION There are three parts in this chapter. The first part explains the reason why this thesis is conducted. The research aims as well as the research questions will be included in the second part. The last one will introduce the leaders the way in which this paper is organized. 1.1. Rationale There are some rationales that encourage me to conduct this research: When I studied at high school, my favorite subject was literature. Through literature, I learnt many interesting things. One of them was about the human survival instinct. I remember that after studying the story “Rừng Xà Nu” written by Nguyễn Trung Thành, I was so impressed by the wounded hands of Tnu- the main character of the story. I wonder many times that how Tnu can live in such hopeless situation: his wife and his son all died in the war, and his hands were also damaged. At last, I realized that it depends on our survival instinct. When we have the goal in life; we will try our best to overcome difficulties. It’s similar to Tnu’s case. He wanted to revenge for his family and his fatherland; therefore, he had a motivation to survive. vii One more time, the human survival instinct came to my mind when I had a chance to study the subject “English literature” last year. Through the three novels of Joseph Conrad, William Golding, and Charlotte Bronte, I understand many things about human survival instinct. I realized that besides its good effects, we would also receive its bad ones. I wonder how people can react like that. Do they feel more comfortable and happier when they do such terrible things? I think it’s out of their control, they only know that they must try their best to survive even it will make them worse. For me, I’m really interested in human survival instinct. I wonder how the grass can grow well without being taken care of, while the rose cannot survive if we don’t water it regularly. I wonder how a boy living in difficult situations can take success more easily than the one living in a rich family. These questions stimulate my curiosity, and I spend a lot of time to find the answer. Therefore, after studying English literature, I want to do the research on the topic human survival instinct. I hope that, through my research I could find the answer for my questions about the mystery of human survival instinct. 1.2. Research aims In my work, I am going to provide the readers with small amount knowledge about the theme “human survival instinct” through the three selected works in English literature. In other words, I wish to study the expression of survival instinct in human beings. I hope to understand in what living situations the survival instinct can be clearly seen, and its effects on human beings. viii In my paper, hopefully, the readers may clearly see the expression of the human survival instinct in the three selected works. There are two types of instinct: civilizing instinct and barbarizing instinct. The civilizing instinct is the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, and follow the moral commands, while the barbarizing instinct is the instinct to gratify ones’ desire, and treat the others as their servants. In life, there is a struggle between the instinct of civilization and the instinct of savagery. This struggle occurs when people live in the extremely hard living condition. In those situations, human beings will struggle to maintain the order among them or they will lose their identity and live wildly as animals. In this paper, the terms civilizing and barbarizing instinct are used interchangeably with instinct of civilization and savagery to refer to the same notions. 1.3. Organization of the thesis There are five chapters in this paper. In chapter one, the reasons motivating me to carry out the research, the research aims, and the organization of the thesis will be included. The second chapter will analyze, contrast, and compare ideas from previous studies related to the topic. Chapter three will state the research questions, materials, and procedure used to reach the research aims. Chapter four will present four parts. In part one, the summaries of the three selected works will be introduced. The expression of the civilizing instinct and barbarizing instinct as well as the conflict between these two types of instincts will be studied in the second part. Part three will answer the question: “In what living situations is the human survival instinct clearly depicted?” The last part will discuss the effects of ix survival instinct on human beings. The last chapter aims at giving a conclusion, discussing limitations of the thesis, and providing some suggestions for further research. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, I start by reviewing the definition of instinct and survival as well as limited my thesis in the scope of human survival instinct. 2.1. Definition of instinct: x According to the encyclopedia “instinct is the inherit disposition of a living organism toward a particular behavior”. In terms of human, the instinct can be considered through human’s emotions, sexual driven and other bodily function as these are largely biological determined. For example, selfishness is a kind of human instinct. Because of their own benefits, people do not want to share their experiences with others. They think that if they do so, they will be more successful than the others. In other cases, in difficult situations, people just think about themselves, so they can do any evil things and they do not care of the others’ life. Another example of instinct is aggressive tendencies “Aggressive tendencies which are ingrained into the psyche, that act and react as an instinct.” (Brian Walker, 1998) That means when people encounter the threats of nature or the difficulties, they intend to act violently to solve the problem. This action is considered as a self-defense, but in another case, it could be considered as crime. There are many ways to classify the human’s instinct such as sexual instinct, food instinct, destructive instinct, etc…. However, in my research I will concern on the instinct of civilization and the instinct of savagery. 2.2. Types of Human instinct 2.2.1. The instinct of civilization: The instinct of civilization means, “The instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of group on the one hand”). On the other hand, “it expects to prevent the worst atrocities of brutal xi violence by taking upon itself the right to employ violence against criminals.” (Sigmund Freud, 1930) People all know that if they want to survive, they need to get together to make a society. In that society, they create rules; follow moral commands and the values. Thanks to the instinct of civilization, people can live together peacefully and happily. However, in life two aspects always exist together, if the instinct of civilization is the good side, the instinct of savagery is considered as the bad one in life. 2.2.2. The instinct of savagery “The instinct of savagery means the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others and enforce one’s will on others.” This instinct is associated with evils. People act cruelly to satisfy their own desires. They want to threaten the order of society and get the power over the others. William Golding stated, “Man is born to sin.” (Golding, qtd in Carey 174), or the Latin expression also stated that “Homo homini lupus.” Which means “Man is wolf to man.” These two expressions refer to a “phenomena man’s regression into a state” of barbarism and animalism. It means man wants to become his own God. He wants to create his own society and make rules over others. He willingly sacrifices people around him to impose himself and to satisfy his own desires. The above idea can be illustrated by some following examples: First, war is considered as crime. In war, people can kill each other and do many terrible things to hurt others like animals. In this situation, the rules and moral commands are broken. xii Another example is slavery. Slaves must suffer many miseries; they don’t have any right even the right to live and the right to eat. Their life depends on their masters and they are treated like animals. Slavery is considered as the worst atrocities in life. Because of the brutality of savagery, people try to eliminate from the society. Therefore, there is a conflict between the instinct of civilization and the instinct of savagery. Sigmund Freud once said, “Civilization presents the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction, as it works itself out in the human species.” According to Freud, life’s instinct is “the process of the combination single human individuals, and after those families, races, people and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind.”(Sigmund Freud, 1918). From the above idea, life’s instinct can represent the instinct of civilization. This instinct permits human beings to create a wonderful place to live and to work. In contrast, the destructive instinct can be understood as the instinct of savagery. Because of this instinct, people want to humiliate torture and kill each other. Therefore, life’s instinct and destructive instinct always struggle with each other. If the life’s instinct is stronger, all evils will be eliminated from the society, then people can live happily and the world will become a wonderful place for us to live. On the contrary, if the destructive instinct is stronger, people cannot control their actions and the world will be destroyed by evils. 2.3. What does survival mean in general? xiii 2.3.1. Definition of survival According to English dictionary (2006), survival means “the fact or state of continuing to live or exist, especially in difficult situation.” In concern with the human survival, we mean individual survival, the survival of personality and character. Therefore, survival can be understood as the ability of human beings to adjust the difficulties. Robinson (the main character in novel Robinson on the deserted Island) is an example, living alone in the island; he must try his best and do many things to survive. Or the case of wolf girls Kamala and Amala, they live with the wolfs and do not have any sense about the civilization for a long time. Therefore, to survive, their body changes so much so that they can adapt to the wolf’s society. For instance, their jaws had undergone some sorts of change in the chewing of bones. They could sit on the ground squatting down. Their eyes had a peculiar blue glare, like that of a cat or a dog, etc… 2.3.2. The grades of survival: Sir Oliver Lodge (1916, p71) stated “There may be many grades of existence, many grades of personality, and accordingly there may be many grades of survival.” To understand this idea, we will clarify the questions: What are the grades of existence? What are the grades of personality? In addition, what are the grades of survival? To answer this question, we will consider the following examples: xiv Observing the hive of bees; we can see that each bee has its own life and its own existence. It is really short and strenuous. However, each of them also willingly sacrifices itself for the good of the community. They will find the specific activity to contribute to the hive such as if wax is needed, they proceed to make it. If wax is provided, they proceed to shape it. If they find already shaped, they fill it with honey. Consider another example; we know that our body is composed of cells. Each cell has its own existence. For example, the white corpuscles in the blood have their own life. They have moved with spontaneity, they assimilate and digest and excrete, they subdivide and increase in numbers. They have many of the attributes of independent life. They also play a part in human body. They keep the whole body in health and will sacrifice themselves for that purpose. In the society, man exists in his own life and his own area. He works to support his life and to satisfy his needs. However, he also takes a responsibility in the society. He must join into the society for making a safe place to live and cooperate with others to fight against the enemy or sit round to solve many universal problems. In short, when the society needs, man willingly sacrifices himself. Therefore, the grades of survival mean a small and trivial thing may survive in a small and trivial way. 2.4. Why should survival instinct be limited to human beings? xv Both human beings and animals have survival instinct. However, for animals, their survival instinct means the instinct to find foods, to give birth, etc…. which is simple. Animals do not have complicated feelings and emotions like human beings. In contrast, when we mention human survival instinct, we mean many things such as emotions, behaviors, sexual drives and so on. Human’s reactions toward the survival instinct can be various. It is not the same as animals’ reactions. The human’s reactions may be good, or may be bad or neutral while the animals’ reactions are almost always bad. In the scope of my thesis, I am going to focus on the survival instinct of human beings because I want to understand the expression of survival instinct in human beings through literature and to see whether it is the same or difference from the reality. The thesis also explores the reactions of human toward the survival instinct whether it is good or bad, and the factors that make people react such ways. 2.5. Summaries of the three selected works 2.5.1. The summary of Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding Lord of the Flies (published in 1954), by William Golding, is a story about a group of English boys whose plane is shot down when they escape from World War I. Being elected as a leader, Ralph chooses Jack as the leader of the hunters for finding the food, and he also convinces the others to light a signal fire for calling the help. However, the boys seem to forget their duties and begin to play. xvi As a result, the fire burns out of their control and one of the youngest boy disappears who is speculated having burn to death. At first, the boys enjoy their life without maturity, they play and joke together and forget their hopeless situation. Besides, the hunters who are led by Jack have trouble catching the pig, and Jack seems to like the act of hunting more than the act of keeping the signal fire. One day a ship passes by the island, no one knows except Ralph and Piggy. They try to beckon the ship but in vain. At last they realize that the signal fire has burned out and maintaining it in light is the hunters’ responsibility. To go forward to the hunters’ group in anger, Ralph yells at Jack, the group’s leader; because Jack lets the signal fire burnt out. As a result, there is a struggle between Ralph and Jack. A big problem arises in the island, it is more important than keeping the signal fire or finding the food. The smallest boys (known as littluns) have a nightmare and they believe that there is a monster hiding somewhere on the island. Ralph summons the boys and tries to convince them that there is no real beast or monster on the island. However, the boys don’t agree and one of them suggests that the beast may come from the sea. Late at that night, no soon after the meeting, the aircraft battle takes place high above the island, and a parachutist drifts to earth near on the signal fire on the mountain. He is dead. No one knows what happens. When the twins Sam and Eric wake up they see the twisted form of the dead parachutist and mistake the shadowy image for the figure of the dreaded beast. They run as quickly as possible xvii to inform their news. The boys believe that there is really a monster on the island. They organize the hunting expedition to search for monster on the mountain. At first, Ralph disagrees; he persuades the others not to search for the monster. Then he joins Jack’s group and goes forward to the mountain in order to maintain his position in the eyes of the group. Ralph, Roger, and Jack start to climb the mountain, and then Ralph and Roger wait somewhere near the top while Jack climbs alone to the summit. He returns, breathlessly claiming to have seen the monster. Once more, the boys confirm the existence of the monster. At that night, Simon discovers the death of the parachutist after he wakes up from the nightmare. He runs to the beach to inform this discovery, but the boys thought he is a monster and kill him with their bare hands and teeth. The following morning, Ralph and Piggy discuss what they have done. Suddenly, Jack and his followers attack them and steal Piggy’s glasses. Ralph and Piggy go to the hunters’ place and try to convince them to accept the truth. However, when Piggy is talking, one boy named Roger kill Piggy by rolling a boulder from the mountain. That night and the following day, Ralph is chased by Jack’s tribe. When he is nearly exhausted and waits for his death, he sees a naval officer standing over him. He tells the officer what happened on the island and he begins to weep, as do the other boys. Moved and embarrassed, the naval officer turns his back so that the boys may regain their composure. 2.5.2. The summary of Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad xviii Written in 1898 by Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness tells the story of the narrator, Marlow. When he was a young man, he captained a steamship to Congo River in order to meet Kurtz who is considered as a genius. Kurtz was sent to Congo as a special emissary of western ideals by the company’s director. It is rumored that he is ill, and this makes Marlow more curious towards Kurtz. However, on the way to meet Kurtz, Marlow and his steamship encounter many difficulties because of the general manager’s harassment. At last, Marlow met Kurtz in bad health; Kurtz is dying. He convinces Kurtz to go with him, while Marlow pilots the ship, Kurtz entrusts Marlow with a packet of personal documents including an eloquent pamphlet civilizing the savages which ends with a scrawled message that says: “Exterminate all the brutes!” Then Kurtz dies uttering his last words “The horror! The horror!” After recovering from his serious illness, Marlow returns to Europe and goes to sees Kurtz’s Intended (his fiancé). She is still mourning Kurtz despite the fact that he died one year ago. She asks what his last words were, but Marlow does not tell the truth. He lies that Kurtz’s last word was her name. 2.5.3. The summary of Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte Published in 1847, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a story of Jane Eyre, a young orphan girl. Jane lives with her cruel wealthy aunt, Mrs. Reed. Her only happiness is that she can listen to her favorite songs and stories from her a servant named Bessie. One day, because of fighting with her bullying cousin, John Reed, Jane is imprisoned in the red- room, the room in which her uncle, Mr. Reed died. xix After locked in, she believes that she sees her uncle’s ghost; she is so frightened and fainted. When she wakes up, she finds herself in the care of Bessie and the kindly apothecary Mr. Lloyd. Mr. Lloyd suggests Mrs. Reed that she should send Jane to school and Mrs. Reed agrees. Once at the Logwood School, Jane encounters another difficulty. The school’s headmaster is Mr. Brocklehurst, a cruel hypocritical and abusive man. Because of the Mrs. Reed’s notice, Mr. Brocklehusrt pays close attention to Jane, and he is sure that Jane is really a liar. At Logwood, Jane makes friend with a young girl named Helen. However, a massive typhus epidemic sweep Logwood and Helen dies of consumption. After the epidemic, there is big change at the Logwood, a group of sympathetic gentlemen takes Brocklehurst’s place, and Jane’s life improves dramatically. She lives at Logwood eight years, six as a student and two as a teacher. After teaching two years at Logwood, Jane accepts a governess position at a manor called Thorn field where she teaches a lively girl named Adele. At Thorn field, Jane meets a dark and impassioned man named Rochester. Jane saves Mr. Rochester’s life from a fire one night. According to Mr. Rochester this fire is started by the drunken servant named Grace Poole. Because Grace Poole continues to work at the Thorn field, Jane keeps this incident in secret. One day, Mr. Rochester brings home a beautiful but vicious woman named Blanche Ingram. Jane feels so depressed because she believes that Mr. Rochester will propose to Blanche. However, Rochester proposes to Jane and she accepts disbelievingly. xx