Racial Notions Reflected in Gentlemen’s Agreement 论《君子协定》中种族观念.docVIP

Racial Notions Reflected in Gentlemen’s Agreement 论《君子协定》中种族观念摘 要：种族歧视问题由来已久，在西方许多人的脑海中根深蒂固。尽管西方社会许多国家采取了一系列反种族歧视措施，但没有从根本上消除种族歧视现象。本文通过对主人公个体经历的探讨，试图分析《君子协定》中突现出来的种族观念，并对其进行深刻反思 关键词：种族观念；种族歧视；反思 [中图分类号]：J905 [文献标识码]：A [文章编号]：1002-2139(2011)-24-0206-01 1. Introduction Gentlemens Agreement, written by Elijah Shelton, is about Philip Green, a journalist who is recruited by a national magazine to write a series of articles on anti-Semitism in America. In order to write an article about Semitism in America through his own experience, he decided to live as a Jew, though in fact he is not. In our real life, a gentlemen?s agreement means an informal agreement reached between two or more parties, either written or oral. In the novel, the so-called “gentleman?s agreement” refers to the social agreement that no one should sell or rent house to the Jews. Therefore the Jews are isolated from the society. Racial discrimination against the Jews are all too clear in the novel. This essay aims to probe into the racial notions elaborated in the novel. At the same time, the social factors underpinning these notions are to be analyzed and some reflections on the issue to be made. 2. Racial Relationship 2.1 Inequality In the novel, many races especially the Jews, have subjected to the racial prejudice, the Jew could not live together with other people nor could they get a good job. We have learned that people are divided into different groups according to their culture or custom, thought, way of life, Geographical environment, population numbers and so on .One can judge a person? race from his outward appearance, or from unseen factors. Rather than color or racial distinction, religious and ethnocentric criteria were used initially to separate groups into superior and inferior categories. But actually these have nothing to do with the superior or inferior of one race. 2.2 Racial Discrimination Just as what we can see from the novel, Philip could not live to