1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

2. Literature review 2.1Previous studies on Lao She and Dreiser Tragedy is the main line that runs through Lao She's life and his works. According to the General Library of academic documents of CNKI, China, since 1956, there have been nearly 20, 000 articles of research with the keyword "Lao She" . Through the induction and comparison of these research articles, we can find that with the progress of the times and the improvement of the understanding level, scholars' research on the elderly has changed from the research with political inclination to the self-conscious academic research. And the research field is also expanding, academic research methods are more and more systematic, pluralistic, multi-directional. The tragic character of Lao She's works has already been recognized as a fact. The study on the tragedy of Lao She mainly focuses on three aspects: the study of the tragic consciousness of Lao She, the study and comparison of the tragic image of the works. The study of Lao She's tragic consciousness has always been the focus of scholars. The study on the tragic image of Lao She's works is the study of the different types of people in Lao She's works. For example, the deep excavations of the old-school citizens in the aspects of personality and psychological spirit, and some researches on the characters with typical images in a novel, such as the study of Xiangzi in Rickshaw Boy. Shao Ningning (2008) puts forward his original opinion on the social significance of Xiangzi's image in Xiangzi's survival problem in the city is very similar to that of the contemporary migrant workers in the city. Modern cities provide them with the opportunity to struggle, but they also create many challenges and even depraved them in their material desires. Song Dengan (2015) points out that under the new historical and contemporary conditions, Xiangzi problem presents a new form and a new form of expression.Xiangzi and contemporary migrant workers are the representatives of the lower citizens. Xiangzi's misfortune is an inevitable social problem in the course of China's modernization Ying Siyue's （2010）essay used existentialism to analyze Xiangzi. From the existentialism point of view, Xiangzi is a dignified person, he has the courage to take responsibility, and strive to find his own existence value. However, "other people is hell" his ream is destroyed by the outside world eventually. In comparative literature Jiao Shigang, Yang Xuetuan (2013) .The two protagonists in Rickshaw Boy and Gao Xing have similar experiences, hope from the countryside to the city, try to integrate into the city, but ultimately failed. The cultural gap between the cities and the countryside and the tragedy of life caused by the inequality of rights are revealed through the comparison between them.Thus it can be seen that Lao She is often used as a model for reference in the contemporary and contemporary comparative literature of China. Zeng Xiangling (2004) :A Comparative study of Jude the obscure and Rickshaw Boy this paper discusses the similarities between the fate of the characters from the tragedy of personal struggle and the tragedy of love and marriage. There are many articles comparing Rickshaw Boy with Sister Carrie.Nie Jun (2010) pointed out that Carrie and Xiangzi share a similar historical background. They all reflect the difficult fate of the little man in the transition from productive society to consumer society. These articled shows that Xiangzi's image is also of contrastive value in European and American literature. While, these articles also show that Lao She's works and Dreiser's works are comparable. Xu Yuanyuan and Huang Li-shuang (2009):On the Theme Comparison of "Rickshaw Boy" and"the death of a Salesman". The two works were compared and analyzed from the themes of character and fate and the theme of alienation of human nature.This shows that alienation theory is also an important aspect of studying the image of Xiangzi characters. In addition, some authors compare and analyze French literary works and Korean literary works such as Jin juhua(2015): The Outlook and Images of the Philistines across the National Boundary--A Comparative Study of Rickshaw Boy and Muddy Stream. Theodore Dreiser is a modern American novelist with a strong sense of tragedy who has never stopped studying Dreiser's novels for 50 years. American tragedy, as a masterpiece of Dreiser, has always been the focus of attention of many scholars. There are many articles about the cause of Clyde's tragedy. Cui Mingxia（2009） The True American Tragedy: an Analysis of the Causes of Clyde's Tragedy analyzes in detail the social causes of Clyde's tragedy. He believes that Clyde certainly has a weak personality. But his tragedy is essentially the tragedy of American society.Wang Xiaojing（2008）：Analysis the Influence of Popular Culture from the Perspective of American tragedy explains the deceptive nature of popular culture and the irreconcilable contradiction between it and the capitalist class structure. And pointed out that it is this contradiction that led to Clyde's final tragedy. In the aspect of contrastive literature, Bao Yuxiao (2012): A Comparative Research on Heroes of AnAmerican Tragedy and Native Sun on the Basis of Freud's Theory of Psychoanalysis of Personality Structure, the author analyzes Clyde and Berg's "three ego", and tries to make a comparative study of the two characters. Li Hao-chan (2017) compares the heroes of My Antonia and An American.The fate of the protagonist in my Antonia reveals the flaws of misguided modern civilization. It shows that civilization, once away from nature, will push mankind to alienation and destruction. To sum up, we can find that the works of Lao She and Dreiser contain a strong tragic spirit. Xiangzi in Rickshaw Boy and Clyde in An American Tragedy have a tragic fate that is similar to that of Clyde in the tragedy of the United States. However, there are few studies on the tragic fate of these two protagonists.We can compare the tragic fate of the characters from the aspects of their image, typical environment, fate track and so on by using a variety of literary and artistic theories. 2.2 study of tragedy Tragedy is a kind of art with a long history, which has been concerned by many scholars and philosophers, from ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to modern philosopher, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, to modern Billingsky, Zhu Guangqian. People's curiosity about tragedy and the quest for fate seem endless. The relationship between character, fate, environment and tragedy has always been the focus of discussion.Huang Ziming's Master thesis put forward the plight of tragedy-the dualistic mode of the character's will, and thought that the inevitability of tragedy was reflected only in the dualistic mode. Based on the previous studies on the inevitability of tragedy, this study will use the dualistic model to interpret Xiangzi and Clyde's tragic fate.

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

1. Research Topic Comparing the fate of Xiangzi and Clyde, find out the cause of their tragedy, analyze whether their fate is similar or not, and whether their tragic fate is inevitable. 2. Research Methods Major research methods will include document research, contrast, deduction, and combination of theoretical research and text study. 1). Document Research. A document research is the process of reading, analyzing, evaluating, and summarizing scholarly materials about a specific work. The author of the thesis has looked up in many libraries some background information,. 2). Contrast. It refers to the logical method of comparing two things in order to show their similarities and differences, which is a major strategy in text analysis. The thesis will make a lot of comparisons and contrasts in the literature review so as to highlight the initiation and distinctiveness of the present study. In the main body of the thesis, contrast will be widely made in the analysis of similarities and subversions of the two texts. 3). Deduction. This method refers to the drawing of a conclusion by reasoning. In the main body of the thesis, every conclusion will be followed by well-grounded reasoning. 4). Combination of theoretical research and text study. It is one of the major research methods employed in the main body of the thesis.