时间：2022-09-08 04:21:18
【Abstract】 Pragmatism is a unique American culture. American people usually behave practically in their daily life. This paper is to analysis how it embodies in their literature.
【Key words】 pragmatism American literature practical
Although the foundation of America is less than three hundred years, the American people have formed their unique culture, such as individualism, spirit of freedom, optimism, exploration, pragmatism and so on. Pragmatism begins with Charles Sanders Peirce, who claims that “an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it, and the unpractical ideas are to be re-
jected”①. The methodology of pragmatism is that, when people judge whether something is worth doing or not, they want to find out what practical consequences would come out, so it is an attitude to decide their direction.② From this methodology, American people become very practical and form their values that truth is what can be effective, useful and beneficial. This attitude contributes to the unique culture of American people that they behave practically in their daily life, such as their way to earn money, their speech patterns, their attitude towards religion, and this principle also influences the writing style of American writers.
American people’s behavior in their daily life reflects their practical culture. The preface of American Democracy reinforces the idea that American people are very practical. They look for short-term interests rather than long-term interests, so what they regard as important is the real existence they can touch and estimated by money. Daisy, the heroine in The Great Gatsby is such a practical woman, for whom, money is everything. In her daily life, what she looks for are material things. When Gatsby went overseas because of the war, Daisy quickly married Tom, who the day before the wed-
ding “gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” So to some extent Daisy married to that valuable string of pearls. In her eyes, Tom can give her what she wants while Gatsby cannot. After five years, Gatsby comes back with a lot of money. He becomes one of the wealthiest people in their region. When Daisy looks at his shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, she sobs and says: “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful shirts before.” This portrays what Daisy’s reaction towards wealth. “Her voice is full of money.” She knows Gatsby is successful and everything in his house is what she wants and looks for. So when she finds that Gatsby still loves her, she begins an am-
biguous relationship with him.
One of the distinguished characteristics of pragmatism is its spirit of enterprising③, which is embodied on Gatsby especially his way to make money. Although he was born in a shiftless and unsuc-
cessful family, his heart is in a constant, turbulent riot. He has the fantastic conceits to be a successful man. He left his home when he was only seventeen. Through his hardworking and enterprising, he earned a great amount of money, and his spirit of enterprising exem-
plifies American pragmatism. From his point of view, no matter whether the way is right or not, the truth is to make a lot of money and he does it successfully.
Pragmatism also teaches people how to prevent from troubles in their daily life, in this aspect, Finn, the hero in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is such a practical character, and from him, we can see how this culture influences the American people, even the children. When Finn and Jim travel along the Mississippi river, they meet two men, who call themselves king and duke. Finn does not spend a long time to make up his mind that these two men are liars, and they are just low-down humbugs and frauds. But even if Finn sees the two liars cheating a lot of money from other people, he says nothing and never lets on. He thinks it is the best way to keep it to himself, because then “you don’t have no quarrels, and don’t get in-
to no trouble.” He also does not tell Jim the truth because he thinks “long as it would keep peace in the family, and it wasn’t no use to tell Jim.” He learns that “the best way to get along with this kind of people is to let them have their own way.” As a child, he learns how to deal with other people peacefully and prevents himself from get-
ting into trouble. So we can see how pragmatism influences the American people and how the people get along with each other in their daily life.
The way how the American people talk with each other is an-
other example of their practical manner. In the novel Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck describes a normal conversation between a waitress and a customer in American:
Waitress: “Same?”
Customer: “Yep.”
(Ten minutes)
Waitress: “Refill?”
Customer: “Yep.”
This short dialogue is very effective, for the meaning is ex-
pressed and the sentence is understandable. This reminds me the dif-
ferences between the American people and the Chinese people when they answer what they want. When the host asks if the guest wants a coffee or a tea, the answer of Chinese people may be “Both are Ok”, while the American people will ask for what they really want. This also reflects American people’s practical attitude. Their direct an-
swer helps the host get rid of guessing what to prepare and the guest also benefit from the answer because he gets what he really wants. That is very practical.
Pragmatism also changes American people’s attitude towards religion. Their belief becomes just a form and never restricts their behaviors at all. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Miss Wat-
son, who is a Christian, tells Finn to pray everyday, and tells him whatever he asks for he would get. Finn tries it and finds it isn’t so. He says to himself, “if a body could get anything they pray for, why didn’t Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork? Why couldn’t the widow get back her silver snuffbox that was stole?” Since religion cannot bring people the real existence they want, they have no reason to restrict their life according to the doctrine.
Pragmatism also influences the writing style of the American writers, who try to find a practical way to express their ideas in their writings, and Hemingway’s iceberg principle is such an example. The iceberg principle means that Hemingway omits words and sen-
tences to make the readers come up with their own way of it.④ In A Farewell To Arms, he simply describes the scenery, the action, the dialogue and does not give any commentary. He eliminates the su-
perfluous words, and only keeps the concise, refined language. At the end of the story, the hero, Henry “walked back to the hotel in the rain”, the author does not tell the readers what happens to Henry af-
ter he leaves the dead lover in the hospital, does his walk alone in the rain represent emotional freedom or devastation? This makes the readers think more and makes Hemingway’s writing style practical.
In American people’s real life, when they do things, they always first consider whether they can get some benefits or not from what they will do. From the analysis of the characters and the writing style of American literature, we can easily find that this attitude is prevailing in American people, and this attitude forms their unique culture―pragmatism.
参考文献:
[1] James, W. Pragmatism. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1979, p31
[2] Tocqueville. American Democracy. Beijing: The Commer cial Press, 1991, p2
[3] Fitzgerald, F.S. The Great Gatsby. Beijing: China Trans- lation and Publishing Corporation, 2009. p68, 83,108
[4] 王元明, 行动与效果:美国实用主义研究. 北京:中国社 会科学出版社,1998, p26
[5] Twain, M. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Shanghai: World Book Publishing House, 2008
[6] Steinbeck, J. Travels with Charley . New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1962, p34
[7] Hemingway, E. A Farewell To Arms. Xi’an: World Book Publishing House, p218
[8] www.省略/faq/faq10.shtml#icberg
作者简介:
潘梦妮,女,四川省自贡市人,云南大学外国语学院研究生,研究方向为美国文化