英语本科毕业论文透过《飘》看现代女性对待生活的态度.doc

本科毕业论文 透过飘看现代女性对待 生活的态度学生姓名： 学生学号： 200320207009 院（系）： 外国语学院 年级专业： 2003级英语本科4班 指导教师： 二七年五月Analysis of modern females attitudes toward life through Gone with the WindLiu WanxiaUnder the Supervision ofHuang TianhongSchool of Foreign Languages and CulturesPanzhihua UniversityMay 2007ContentsAbstract.IKey Words.I摘要.I关键词.IIIntroduction.1I. Brief Introduction of the Author and the Novel.2A. Concise Introduction of the Author.2B. Concise Introduction of the Novel.2II. Analyzing Modern Females Attitudes toward Life through Several Aspects.2 A. Marriage and Marriage Life.2B. Family and Family Life 4C. Difficulties and Difficult Life5III. Modern Womens Attitudes toward Material and Spiritual Life.7A. Modern Women s Attitudes toward Money.7B. Modern Women s Attitudes toward Education.10Conclusion.12Acknowledgements.13Bibliography.14AbstractGone with the Wind has always been regarded as one of the most classic love stories in American literature. The protagonist of this masterpiece Scarlet s three marriages have always been the topic of its critics, audiences and readers. In regard of her marriages there had been many disputes, some think that three marriages ruined her happy life; but others hold the point of view that her three marriages helped her to know more about life and made her know how to pursue happy life. This paper attempts to help readers analyze this novel in the perspective of feminism to shed some new light on it. This thesis also tries to reveal modern females attitudes toward life through analysis of the protagonist of Gone with the WindScarlet s attitudes toward life.KeywordsFemale; independent; life attitude摘要飘历来都被认为是美国文学史上经典的爱情小说之一。这部闻名遐迩的小说的主人公斯佳丽的三次婚姻始终是评论家，观众及读者评头论足的对象。关于她的婚姻人们众说纷纭，争议颇多。有人认为：三次婚姻给她的幸福生活抹上了阴影。有人认为：正是这三次婚姻让她更加懂得了生活并懂得了如何去追求幸福生活。这篇论文试图从女性主义角度解读飘并赋予其新的观点。同时也试图通过对飘的主人公斯佳丽对待生活的态度的分析，揭示现代女性对待生活的态度。关键词女性; 独立; 生活态度IntroductionAs time passes by, world is changing day by day at an amazing speed. Each field is developing and bettering. This is a highly developed society; everything here is quite different from that of the past. Time went back to the American civil war, conditions were fairly terrible, but before the starting of the war people there lived a happy and luxurious life. When the civil war broke out, and after a long time of fighting, a number of soldiers were dead, buildings were destroyed. All those belonging to the tranquil nation were changed beyond recognition. People had no house to live in, no food to eat, even no clothes to wear. What a terrible situation one can imagine! Many of the noblewomen in the south chose a way to be degraded. But there was a young and great woman fighting against these difficulties, and she firmly lived though life was awfully hard. This paper would like to analyze modern females attitudes toward life from the respect of marriage and marriage life, family and family life, women s careers and their educational level through the female character of Gone with the Wind- Scarlet. There had always been many disputes as to who should be responsible for women s happy life, and it has become the focus topic in today s society. The traditional viewpoints hold that man should account for women s happy life. A successful man can give a woman what she wants. Another point of view is that the society should be responsible for women s happy life and every class of the society should pay more attention to women s happy life. In this respect, women are regarded as a weaker group. But another fact also deserves peoples attention that women are sometimes lowered down by themselves; they are likely to rely on men. Today we advocate that there should not be gender discrimination, women should be responsible for their own happy life.I.Brief Introduction of the Author and the NovelA. Concise Introduction of the Author Margaret Mitchell was born in a lawyers family in 1900. When she was young, she often heard people talking about the civil war which made her interested in the war and peoples life condition in that period. In the beginning of1930s, she worked for the Atlanta newspaper office, where provided her lots of historical materials about American civil war. After her marriage, she resigned from the Atlanta newspaper office and began her composition of Gone with the Wind. It took her 10 years to complete this masterpiece. In 1936, Gone with the Wind was all the rage. So far, it was regarded as one of the most famous love novel in American literature.B. Concise Introduction of the NovelIn Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell portrayed the inferior position of women in the south of America during the 19th century. She also described a heroine Scarlet and her love entanglement with Ashley and Rhett. Scarlet was self-partial and priggish when she was a young lady; she was selfish and kind when she was a widow; she was shrewd and gainful when she was a businesswoman. Her life was filled with legend. Her ups and downs fully embodied her life condition and her attitude toward life. She was a common woman but she acted like a great woman did. She was a modern woman in old ages. Her bravery, independence, resolution and other personalities always encourage women in modern times. But whats modern womens attitudes toward life? The following parts will analyze their attitudes toward life. Analyzing Modern Females Attitudes toward Life through Several AspectsA. Marriage and Marriage LifeLong time ago, women had no right to choose their spouse, their marriage was determined by their parents, they must follow the man they married, no matter how bad and evil he was. However, today we own an equal era, in which woman can choose what kind of man she loves and decide how to live a happy life. Marriage is considered to be one of the most important things in women s life. Some even think that by marrying a rich man can one gain life s happiness. However happy life is usually given by oneself but not by marriage or by others. a. The protagonist of Gone with the Wind Scarlet was beautiful, shrewd, brave and independent. In the ordinary course of events, she can marry an excellent or rich man or at least a man that she loves and also she can live a sweet life. But, she chose another way of life; she really took every possible chance to make her future brighter. She first married Melanies brother Charley. Just two months later she became a widow. In order to get money, she married her sisters fianc Frank. From Starlets marriage life, we can clearly understand that life is not a play-game as well as marriage. As a woman, one should circumspectly consider of her life and marriage. But even so, plenty of women regard their own business as a bystander s business. They really do know that their own happiness is in their hands. However, some of them still choose to be degraded. Modern female s marriage attitude may be different from Scarlet s. Modern women are likely to treat themselves better and better. However, many modern females arent aware of what a happy marriage can bring to them. Even some enchanting, successful, rich and high-brow women choose another unusual way of life which broke their heart, demolished their family, destroyed their profession, even all their life, even so, they are not conscious of this. To take Tang Jieone of the earliest millionaires in Nan Jing city as an example, she was very successful in her fashion profession in her early years. She possessed her own company and a large number of money swarmed into her account. With the growing of money and promoting of social status, she began to feel ashamed of her low-brow husband; their nice marriage came into an end. The middle-aged woman Tang Jie went into such a way that she can never go back. She fell in love with a man, who was 12 years younger than her and was cheated by him, and then she again fell in love with another man who was 14 years younger than her, and again she was hurt by this man and was stabbed by him. She didnt believe love any longer, she became crazy for comforting by drugs, which later destroyed her whole life. The drug made her poor, she began to smuggle drug. This is one of those women who have money and all the luxurious goods; after all, she is unhappy and owns a tragic life. Modern women often lay stress on how to make money, but neglect what is more important in one s life. Therefore we modern women should attach great importance to happiness but not money only.b. Women are the master of their happy life and marriage life. Whether women can live a happy life or not is totally dependent on themselves. Women love beautiful things constitutionally and they always pay much attention to their appearance, so some women will blame god and men why they don t have good-looking and give themselves up as hopeless. One may not be charming, but one may be lovely; one can have good temper or one can dress up oneself. Beauty is not unique; it doesnt only refer to the beautiful face or slim figure. There are many things that are more enchanting than the charming face. Some women will be indignant with their husbands for their disloyalty to them in their marriage life. They are not to blame their husbands or scold or cry, instead, women should check themselves first. Suppose a woman is elegant, moral, capableher husband will not betray her. To take Scarlet as an instance, in her first two marriages, she did not suffer from such kind of embarrassment, in that she was beautiful and decent, but her last marriage was filled with such embarrassments, though she was still beautiful, she was eager to get money, and her heart betrayed her husband before her husbands betrayal, so she suffered from her husband s disloyalty. B. Family and family lifea. As one of the essential social institution in human history, the family probably arose because of the need for adults to devote a great amount of time to childrearing. Human infant must, for a large portion of their lives than for any other species, be cared for and taught by adults. And in the family rearing, women became the center of the family. It is better for women in the traditional family to stay at home and not to work outside. What a woman needs to do is to take good care of the child, to educate the child and to protect the child from going astray. But women in this century or the century before have much more things to do in a family. They are responsible for the security of a family, the happiness of a family. Besides, women have to work outside no matter how tough the work is. As in Gone with the wind, though Scarlet did not like her son Wade, she still has the obligation to rear him well. Many of such examples can be seen in today s society, women are burden with so much works. They serve not only as a good mother but also a virtuous mother. If they do something bad to their children or do some things that make their family members unsatisfied there will be much disputes which maybe one day or the other become the emotive gap among the family members. b. Throughout the human history, we have depended heavily on the family to provide both social order and economic success. Families have provided for the survival and development of children, for the emotional and physical health of adults, for the special care of the sick, injured, handicapped, and elderly, and for the reinforcement of social values. But today families in every corner of this world are facing growing problems. So the divorce rate increases sharply and parents increasingly decide to forgo marriage, with the consequence that a sizable number of children are being raised in single parent household, apart from other relatives. Large numbers of married women gave up the roles of fulltime mother and housewife to go into the labor market, while the activities of their former role have not been fully replaced. Another problems is that the focus of many families is shifting away from childrearing to the psychological wellbeing and selfdevelopment of their adult members. But what is the attitude of modern females toward these problems brought about by family? C. Difficulties and Difficult lifea. Women are often disturbed by trifling things and troubles around them and because of these trifles they become intolerant, pessimistic. In fact, a set of methods can help women jump from these trifles and free themselves from such pressure. Only the one who has the ability to deal with the forthcoming difficulties can live a relaxed life. In Gone with the Wind, the protagonist Scarlet was such an optimistic person; she did not worry about imaginary troubles. Whenever she met difficulties or she was in a dilemma, she never shrank back; instead, she confronted difficulties bravely. Though she had the idea of backslide, yet such kind of idea was finally overcome by her sense of achievement. She always kept the idea that every thing has its way to be settled. Because of such belief, Scarlet had really conquered some difficulties for several times.b. In common persons mind, women are inclined to make complaints, blame others or disturb oneself. Nevertheless, many women know well how to treat themselves and treat themselves well. Helen Keller was such an excellent woman. She was blind and deaf when she was only 19 months old, one can imagine such misery that her world became totally dark and silent after transient period of brightness. She can not hear the euphonious music of birds, she can not hear any sound of this wonderful world, and she can not see the nice flowers All that she touched or met is darkness and tranquility. In spite of that, she did not resent the world, but with a gratitude heart, she wrote the masterpiece Three Days to See, in which she described what she would do in the three days. She faced the difficult situation with amazing fortitude. Finally she enjoyed the light of life in darkness and also sowed the seed of kindness in every corner of the world. Above that, lots of modern females know how to live and enjoy a happy life, but few of them know how to face difficulties. In fact, only when modern fe