Abstract: Colleen McCullough is an Australian woman writer. Her masterpiece The Thorn Birds is a saga. It tells the life experiences and emotional courses of three generations in Cleary family. This thesis focuses on the analysis of feminism revealed in this novel, trying to discover women’s pursuit for independence and freedom from love and fate. This thesis is composed of four parts. The first part of this thesis is a brief introduction to Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds and the critical studies and researches of it at home and abroad. Afterwards it mainly introduces the feminist theoretical concerns in the thesis and the development tendency of feminism. Women’s fight against church and fate in disadvantageous natural and social environment for survival, love and dreams are well revealed in the novel. Based on these, the thesis mainly reveals the essence of feminism by analyzing the love experiences of Mary, Fiona, Meggie and Justine in The Thorn Birds in detail, and it also examines the relationship between men and women. A conclusion is drawn that women’s pursuit is equality and liberation with self-consciousness. In addition, to gain self-value and happiness people should constantly pursue love and struggle against unfair fates. |
