Reconstruction of Ideologies from Self Consciousness in Italo Calvino's The Non-existent Knight and Yu Wah's On the Road at Eighteen

Italo Calvino's The Non-existent Knight and Yu Wah's On the Road at Eighteen are both written in the age in which ideologies are collapsed; the former one after the Second World War and the later one after the Cultural Revolution. The historical background makes people retrospect their own beliefs and leads to further dissolution of ideologies. After the First World War, people especially Europeans believe that people would learn from this painful experience but a …

…Yet, on the other hand, after undergoing this crisis, some people may emerge with a new understanding toward the world. They strike a balance between the outside world and inner self, neither adopting the ideologies without questioning nor depending solely on their interpretations of the world. This is the exit for people to dwell in the impalpable world as the world is not ideal but people need to seek their settlement in this imperfect world.