ABSTRACT

Moon Palace, by Paul Auster, a contemporary American writer, tells us the story about an American college student, Marco Fogg’s poor life and some things happening to him and a Chinese girl, Kitty Wu, also concerning a Chinese restaurant named Moon Palace. Based on the theory of imagism, this thesis will analyze the implications of the images of Moon Palace Restaurant and Kitty Wu, explore Marco Fogg’s cognitive attitude towards the socialist society China and Chinese people, and at last try to draw a conclusion that Auster’s value orientation is close to the left by comparing Fogg’s experiences with Auster’s. To some extent, this research might be helpful for us college students to realize the nature of the capitalist society and believe in the advantages of socialism more firmly.

Key words: Moon Palace; Chinese images; Moon Palace Restaurant; Kitty Wu; Paul

          Auster

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One INTRODUCTION .1

1.1 Brief Introduction about Paul Auster-1

1.2 Brief Introduction of Moon Palace-2

1.3 Structure of the Present Thesis-2

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW-4

2.1 A Brief History of Past Studies-4

2.2 Critical Inadequacy of Past Studies-5

2.3 The Significance of Present Study-5

Chapter Three THE BASIC THEORY-7

3.1 Brief Introduction about Imagism-7

3.2 Brief Introduction of Images-7

3.3 The Connection of the Imagist Movement to China-9

Chapter Four THE CHINESE IMAGES-10

4.1 Moon Palace Restaurant Image-10

4.1.1 Symbolic role-10

4.1.2 Indicative role-11

4.2 Kitty Wu Image-12

4.3 Similar Functions of the Two Chinese Images.-13

4.4 The Relationship betweem Paul Auster and Marco Fogg-13

Chapter Five CONCLUSION-15

WORKS CITED-16