An Interpretation Of The Grass Is Singing From The Perspective Of Structural Role Theory

The Grass is Singing is Doris Lessing’s representative work, which revolves around the life dilemma of the whites and the blacks in the colonial society in South Africa. Doris Lessing integrates race issue and gender issue in the novel. She often unconsciously emphasizes the idea in her works that all people are social beings and are disciplined by social mechanism behind social facts. Therefore, the thesis takes a social perspective to study the novel. Structural role theory is employed to analyze how the main characters play their roles. The role players are generally classified into positive role players and negative ones. Each of them is trying to live up to the role expectation put on them. Some of them succeed in living up to their role expectation but others fail. The thesis aims to show that social norms may promise the order and stability of society to some extent but they may also limit individuals’ development.In an abnormal society, the role playing of individuals may be far more complex than they expect.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces Doris Lessing,The Grass is Singing and the structure of the thesis. A thesis without summarizing and evaluating former scholars’ results cannot be called a proper thesis. Thus, the second chapter is a literature review covering domestic scholars’ and foreign scholars’ research findings. Their efforts will be evaluated objectively. Psychological sociology is often employed in clinic practice while its application to literary analysis is rare.There is even no precedent for a sociological analysis of the novel. Most scholars who devote themselves to literary theories or literary criticism may have little knowledge of social theories, not to mention the role theory. Therefore, the theoretical framework will be discussed in the third chapter. The history of role, the development of role theories and some key concepts will be covered in this part. In fact, role theories can be classified into functional role theory, organizational role theory, cognitive role theory and structural role theory. The next chapter is the most important part of the thesis: the analysis of the role playing of the protagonists. In order to make thediscussion more organized, the discussion is divided into two parts: positive role players and negative role players. The fifth chapter is the conclusion, which covers a summary of the thesis, its significances, limits and suggestions for the convenience of further study.