A Jungian Psychological Study Of The Grass Is Singing

Doris May Tayler Lessing is one of the most prolific English writers. Among all her writings, The Grass Is Singing, plays a very important role. The novel exposes a story happened in Africa. Because of disappointment on her weak husband and boring marriage life, the white hostess, Mary, began a love affair with her black servant, Moses. Knowing that her act would be punished by her inner self and the white society, Mary finally succumbed to the whites.Moses killed her. Critics discuss the novel in the perspective of feminism, postcolonialism and some other aspects. This present thesis aims to analyze the novel in the view of Jungian psychology.Jung holds that the process contains two stages, this thesis, by showing Mary's struggles and difficulties in realizing this two stages, finally concludes that Mary's individuation process is doomed to fail under that current conditions. Accordingly, the author advises that in the process of returning to be a free and best self, i.e., in the process of realizing individuation, eliminating racial and gender prejudices and understanding each other are necessary.As far as Jung is concerned, the most important purpose of his analytical psychology is to do research on people's growth toward individuation. This process covers two phases, the first phase is to be a free self and the second is to realize the wholeness of consciousness and unconsciousness, through which one can become a best self. Generally speaking, Mary's life journey is full of constant struggles for realizing this two stages. When she was a little girl she tried to be free by struggling with her parents in vain, and when she grew up, she made great efforts to become independent by escaping from her tragic marriage life. In order to be a best self, in other words, in order to fulfill the wholeness of conscious and unconscious, Mary, on the one hand, physically needs Moses, and on the other hand, let Moses away. She suffered the pain all the time. Although struggling to realize this process all through her life, Mary is doomed to fail. There are many reasons such as interior ones and exterior ones.