@misc{Chen, author = {Chen, Chaoyan}, title = {The Escape and Pursuit of Freedom. >Play It As It Lays< Psychological Analysis [自由的逃避与追求 -《顺其自然》的心理学分析], Master thesis, English Language and Literature, Suzhou University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China 2012 [Application of Fromm's theories to art] .}, abstract = {Joan Didion, entering the literary field in the1960's, has achieved great success in contemporary American Literature. Of Her works covers fiction with non-fiction and scriptwriting. Play It As it Lays depicts the social scenario and of America in the1960's and portrays especially the subsistent and psychological status of the female character Maria. It is for this reason that this novel becomes a symbol for the contemporary American society. This novel centers upon the process of Maria's psychological development, displaying the commonplace sense of people's insecurity and anxiety at that time, though they enjoy the abundant material pleasures. Living in the1960's, Maria takes on unconsciously all those features of that time, but only finds disappointment in the mechanism of how people think and behave. She feels more and more alienated and powerless in that world, which leads her to the midst of void.- In this thesis, the social-psychological theories by Erich Fromm are applied to analyze Maria's psychological development in the postmodern society. The theoretical framework, with >freedom< as its core conception, is intended to analyze the meaning of freedom to modern man as well as the reasons why people want to escape passive freedom and then point out the path to positive freedom. Maria's psychological status can be divided into two periods: the escape of passive freedom and the pursuit of positive freedom. Maria has experienced the disillusionment of the simulated Hollywood, wanting to escape the freedom that is gained through material pleasures and to pursue her individual freedom. The actions that Maria takes to escape the passive aspect of freedom almost end up with her self-destruction. For Maria, the three mechanisms of escape brought up by Fromm, namely, authoritarianism, destructiveness and automaton conformity, are all attempted by her unconsciously. However, by adopting these three escape mechanisms, Maria feels more isolated and anxious than ever. As a matter of fact, she doesn't want to perform as a part of this big machine called capitalism at the cost of losing herself. That's why she is defined by the society as a neurotic and ends up in neuropsychiatric hospital. Then Maria is on her way to freedom in a positive sense, which is realized through spontaneous love and work. The fact is that, in this novel, we only see the tendency and attempts of Maria's spontaneous activities as an individual self.- The spontaneity proposed by Fromm doesn't necessarily lead to any tangible results, but the willingness of individual to fully realize his true self. Through all the spontaneous activities mentioned above, Maria sets off on her way to freedom and salvation.}, language = {zh} }