《荆棘鸟》论文正文.docx

1、荆棘鸟论文正文An Analysis of Females Self-consciousness in The Thorn Birds1. Introduction This part includes a brief introduction of the author and the novel The Thorn Birds, a general description of the novels creation background, a review of the novels status and influence, a presentation of the developm

2、ent of the females self-consciousness, and a depiction of the main structure of this thesis.1.1 The author The famous Australia writer Colleen McCullough born on 1937, in Wellington of New South Wales, she was born and grown up in there, and she hadnt left it until twelves. She has shown her great t

3、alent in science and arts. She made many poems and stories and pictures. All this push her to success. On the one side, she studied neurology abroad and taught the subject at Yale Medical School. And then she moved to American to be a neurophysiologist after working for ten years at Yale Medical Sch

4、ool in New Haven, Connecticut. Now, McCullough is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On the other side, McCullough has also been very successful in writing. Her writing career has lasted for four decades, and she has covered a wi

5、de variety of topics such as the Roman Empire and medical crimes. However, The Thorn Birds is most arguably her best and most powerful novel of all time.1.2 About The Thorn Birds The book tell readers a story begin in 1915 and end in more than half a century later, the Cleary family, which leave New

6、 Zealand to vast Australian sheep station, in where their happiness and tragedies are developed with the wonder and terror of a land destroyed by rought and torrential flood. In 1977, The novel The Thorn Birds immediately caused a stir after it published in the world. Some people even put it as the

7、Gone With The Wind of Australia , and The Time magazine has listed it as the top 10 modern classic works. The beautiful love story scenes and twists impressed the whole world readers. The story takes the Drogheda pasture as the background and the hot, contradiction deep-rooted love between father Ra

8、lph who longs for the Vatican powerful and the kind, beautiful woman Meggie as the focus, and then developed the sorrow and happiness of more than ten people of the cleary family. It stoped the oppression and bondage for humanity of what religion gives, and praised the sublime and beauty of the huma

9、n nature and love. The novel especially depicts four female images of Mary, Fiona, Meggie, and Justin, they dare to break the traditional and religious rules and still stick to the pursuit of love. Their perseverance for the twist of fate, for the love they pursuit , even for the path they gone thro

10、ugh which full of thorns. But finally brought about the happiness of love for them after the huge pain and changes in life, like the thorn birds finally sing out the life song that belongs to itself.1.3 Females self-consciousness1.3.1 The explanation of female self-consciousness Self-consciousness i

11、s an acute sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being; although some writers use both terms interchangeably or synonymously.1 The sixties and seventies of the femi

12、nist movement belongs to the second phase of the western feminist movement. The movement of this phase is characterized by the criticism to male chauvinism and the awakening of female consciousness. With the development of time, women starts to awake after thousand years mental bondage, their indepe

13、ndent consciousness becomes more and more strong, they began to pursue their own independent personality, affirm their value and dignity, and express their own feelings. This kind of culture conflict between female consciousness and male chauvinism has become an important subject of western feminine

14、 literature in the 20th century.1.3.2 The development of female self-consciousness With the development of different periods of social transformation and ideas, the development of female self-consciousness has experienced three periods, each period has different concerns of different level, they are

15、 the right consciousness, gender consciousness and identity consciousness. Every development period always have close relations with womans reality status and the urgent need of the present , therefore the themes they focus on are different, and the specific manifestation they emphasize on are also

16、different. That is to say, in different historical stages, the development of female self-consciousness always have different tasks. 2 . Females self-consciousness in The Thorn Birds2.1 Mary, the distortion of self-consciousness Meggies aunt, Mary Carson, is a woman who have a calculating mind, she

17、changed their own destiny by marrying with a rich man. He lived as a widow for thirty years, her only son had died in infancy. To keep all the inheritance to herself exclusively, instead of sharing with anyone else, she prefers to abandon her strong desire for man and wield power alone. But love hav

18、ent age limit, when a woman of sixty-five met a handsome man who are twenty seven years younger than her and have the height, the fine aristocratic features and the perfect proportions of body, she totally lost in a love that destined to no results. Faced with Ralphs casual indifference even the dis

19、gust and disdain to her, she was both painful and unwilling. She was acutely know the love between Ralph and Meggie, thus she hate her age But only can follow Ralph and Meggie with an envious eyes. However, aging and age cannot make her give up the love to Ralph, just as what she said, “Inside this

20、stupid body Im still youngI still feel, I still want, I still dream, I still kick up my heels and chafe at restrictions like my body. Being old is the bitterest vengeance our vengeful god inflicts upon us. Why doesnt he age our minds as well?” .2:182 Mary Carsons attitude to love is as well as her c

21、ontrol desire to wealth and power- destroy it or have it absolutely. The revenge that triggered by the strong love is like poisons hidden in her heart: Ralph, I love you, so much I would have killed you for not wanting me, except that this is a far better form of revenge. Im not the noble kind woman

22、; I love you but I want you to scream with agony. Because you see, I know what your decision will be. I know it as surely as if I could be there, watching you scream, Ralph, youll know what agony is. Read my note, and decide your fate.2:188 This is a paragraph in Mary Carsons suicide note, Its obvio

23、us that the love Mary to Ralph is a selfish and crazy love which is based on possession, she will destroy it if she cant get it. She know what Ralph weakness is, so in the final moments of her life she make a elaborate trap - 13 million pounds heritage to lure Ralph, this make Meggie and Ralph suffe

24、red forever. Her revenge was carried on after the death of her, and Ralph and Meggies life has changed since that. Mary Carson is unwilling to be the dependency of man, she wants their destiny is firmly in control of her hand. Eventually she succeeded in revenge to Ralph, but at the same time she al

25、so let herself became the disgusting old lady. We can know from her story that selfish love cannot let a person get any pleasure or happiness, even finally the person suffered from great pain because of you, but you also cannot get the peace for mind and the content for love, the only result that it

26、 will result in is make you become more hateful and regrettable.2.2 Fiona, the bud of self-consciousness Fiona was born in an aristocratic family and have a great family environment, she looks gentle and soft, but actually she is stubborn and strong. She fall in love with a married man parker, and g

27、ive birth to child Frank for him. But as a politician, Parker abandoned Fiona for their own future and reputation. To maintain the honor of her family and protect her son, she was forced to Mary the shearer paddy. After decades of life, she closed her heart and transferred the love for parker to her

28、 son Frank. For the injustice of fate and the hardships of life, she choose to resist it by silence or even indifference. But this resistance appears to so weak and thin, it leads to her miserable life. On Fiona, we can feel the vulnerable side of the woman in the love. Her whole life is full of unf

29、ortune, she didnt Mary with her loved man but choose to be a farmer. Her youngest son Hal, died when was young, her favorite son Frank had been taken to prison, her husband Paddy and son Stewart also died unexpectedly one by one. However her life is also colorful, she did not Mary a suitable person

30、that in accordance with the idea of parents like the other girls, the life that look after the husband and educate the children, but to pursue their own love and happiness. For parker, her love is so hot, like a moth to the fire though he know he will die. She would rather give birth to the child un

31、der the revile of all people. She sacrifice herself to Mary Parker who was far from their status in order to keep the love of them. The cost she payed for the love is huge and painful, but she never regretted for it. The love between her and her husband Paddy is also a pity , although she is force t

32、o Mary Paddy, Paddy accept her past without complaint. For Paddy, she feel guilt all the time, but all she can do is do the housework and give birth to children for him, in addition to this, she cant give him anything else. Paddy is a real good husband, in his lifetime, he love the wife who not love

33、 him with the feelings of inferiority and admire. After knowing the death of paddy, Fionas emotion was broke out under the long time depression, she cried and said to Meggie:“ I kept hanging on to Frank, ignoring the rest of you. Ignored Paddy, who was the best thing ever happened to me. I didnt see it. I w