Theft by Katherine Anne Porter(文本分析)

Theft by Katherine Anne PorterThe main character in Katherine Anne Porters short story Theft is a poor woman at the age about late 20s with a beautiful purse. The purse is a thread which associates with several episodes and in each event it reveals the main characters inner personality. The first episode is her encounters with three men who stand for lover, friend and neighbor. The second event is the theft of her purse. Lastly, the protagonist confronts the thief. In each episode the main character displays her intimate personality.The background of the story is the “Red 30s” that the western world was dominated by the ideology of Communism which values equality, sense of common that everything is own by society. Influenced and affected by such ideology, the heroine take no care of her procession, both the tangible (money and property) ones and intangible ones (kinship, friendship, love and happiness of life, etc.) “Let it go” is the only conclusion she made for the unpleasant experiences she came across. The only strike-back she made was when she found the purse was stolen. The purse is from an very important friend and meaningful to her. She broke her silence and demanded the theft to give it back. But the theft argued that her beauty was fading and she did not need it any more that she should give it to another younger girl. Reviewing her life, the heroine realized that it had been her carelessness and indifference that made her lose everything and her attitude towards life is more terrible than a theft. “I was right not to be afraid of any theft but myself, who will end by leaving me nothing.”Katherine Anne Porters TheftRealism was developed after the civil war, which is defined as “the faithful representation of reality”. The age of Realism is reaction against romanticism and an interest in scientific method. The sweeping changes of economy, society, and politics, which took place in post-war life, allowed American realism to prevail. Realism started with the realistic and frontier literature that merged into the mainstream through authors such as Mark Twain up to now.Realism is characterized by natural diction, truthful description of life, typical character under typical circumstance, revelation the frustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravity, and open ending.Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was a creative writer who was born in Indian Creek, Texas.Her best writings were written in the form of short stories. She described herself as “precocious, nervous, rebellious, intractable, to which also one could add individualistic.” She is known as a modern writer, but in her short stories, there are also realistic factors.Take “theft” as example. The background of this story was set in the city of New York during the great depression. It describes one corner of the society during the 1930s：the stagnant setting, the men in dry dock, the hypocrisy of the society, the depraved mental status of people and the conflict between classes“She had intended to take the elevated, and naturally she looked in her purse to make certain she had the fare, and was pleased to find forty cents in the coin envelope.”p186And when she lost her purse, it was empty. “She was thinking about her empty purse”p190It shows that she is pretty poor caused by the economic depression. In addition, the figures of the three men are typical characters in that time. We can see all peoples disillusioned mental status through those three men and the protagonist.“The more it skids the calmer I feel, so I really must be drunk.”p187The purse the protagonist had lost is a symbol of money or wealth in some degree. The purse is a beautiful “golden cloth” one which implies her class. And the janitress would rather steal the purse than accepting it as a alms. And the narrator shared money with every an in the story, except the janitress .From this, we can see the bitter conflict between classes.From this short story, we can see the gap between people. The coldness of the society and people. “She laid the purse on the table and sat down with the cup of chilled coffee.”P193 People do not understand each other (husband and wife) and the loss of love. All of them was caused by the society.The early of 20thcentury was a roaring decades of great turbulence and crises. There prevailed disillusion anywhere. Katherine Anne Porter is a communist in the early 20thcentury because of the Mexican revolution and her inborn passion of rebel. And the Sacco-Vanzetti affair is another cause fired her political indignation in the 1920s. But the failed Mexican revolution and injustice of the Sacco-Vanzetti affair coalesced in Porters mind as the annihilation of her idealistic faith. The short story “theft” is a microcosmic society, which reflected porters point of view and the state of mind.Purse is traditionally even a metonym for money. Just like the description in the great Gatsby, the American society then prevailed materialism. Finally, everyones dream will be destroyed. All the other characters in the story are associated with the protagonist by money. It is ironic. However, when the purse was stolen, the narrator began to review her past behaviors. She found that materialism is evil and suppress the spiritual. But when she decided to give up the purse, she felt perplexed and aimless. She lost her faith in the society.And porter apply herself to feminism. The protagonist is a writer just as porter. She is a kind of vivid and typical characters created though the experience of life. Feminine life condition and her difficulties in the society is porters concern. Through the description of the narrators straits, porter criticize the patriarchy. Porter lived in the time of the second wave of feminist movement. Her concern about female is full of actuality.Porter is a stylist. Her diction is accurate and natural. The ending of “theft” is open ending, which leaves much room for readers to think by themselves. And she used the stream of consciousness in her works.小說(shuō)以20世紀(jì)30年代美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)大蕭條時(shí)期的紐約市為背景，關(guān)注的人群是紐約戲劇界的藝術(shù)家或者文人。女主人公是像波特一樣的作家兼評(píng)論家。小說(shuō)并沒(méi)有傳統(tǒng)意義上的故事情節(jié)，圍繞著“錢包”丟失這個(gè)線索，女主人公展開(kāi)了一些與此有關(guān)的回憶活動(dòng)。一樁小小的偷竊事件，一個(gè)平淡無(wú)奇的故事。但是波特的獨(dú)到之處就在于能夠從淺顯的故事中挖掘出人們心靈深處的困惑和深刻的哲理。本文擬就偷竊的藝術(shù)特色做三方面的分析：人物的刻畫(huà)、場(chǎng)景的設(shè)計(jì)以及結(jié)構(gòu)的組織。一、精致刻畫(huà)的人物。就像很多女性作家一樣，波特小說(shuō)中的主人公多為女性。不同的是，她刻畫(huà)的女主人公心理和性格更為復(fù)雜豐滿，作者在作品主題意義上的挖掘也更為深刻。她們都具有強(qiáng)烈的獨(dú)立意識(shí)，依靠自我的力量追求屬于自己的生活，其中難免挫折失敗甚至失望幻滅，而那些無(wú)法控制的社會(huì)、政治與自然力量常常是導(dǎo)致這一切的因素。波特小說(shuō)的女主人公在這樣的經(jīng)歷之后的感悟往往會(huì)啟迪讀者的思維，喚起讀者對(duì)人性更深刻的認(rèn)識(shí)。獨(dú)到的人物刻畫(huà)方式是波特寫(xiě)作風(fēng)格的一個(gè)顯著特征。她善于洞察人物的所思所想，使讀者能夠跟隨她體驗(yàn)角色的內(nèi)心世界。女主人公“她”在小說(shuō)中是一個(gè)沒(méi)有被冠以姓名的概念人物，可以被看作是美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)大蕭條時(shí)期眾多女性的化身，“她”的所見(jiàn)、所聞、所思、所感代表了美國(guó)那個(gè)特殊歷史時(shí)期大多數(shù)婦女的經(jīng)歷和感受。在創(chuàng)作中，波特采用了意識(shí)流手法的變體，稱之為“全景式或全方位”（