An Analysis of Play It As It Lays from the Perspective of Fromm’s Alienation Theory

Joan Didion is an outstanding female writer who has achieved a distinctive position in contemporary literature.Her second novel,Play It As It Lays,is nominated for a National Book Award.Set in Hollywood and Las Vegas,it presents the alienated world through exquisite description of its protagonist Maria.Based on Erich Fromm’s Alienation Theory,this essay attempts to analyze the alienation in the novel from two aspects:first,the novel’s materialistic environment in the 1960s;second,the alienated relationship between spouses as well as between parents and children.