Search For The Female's Loenti(?) In Lady Oracie

Lady Oracle is the third novel of the Canadian female writer Margaret Atwood, which records the protagonist Joan's exploration on her identity. With the help of postmodern feminism, this dissertation elaborates how Joan, who is confined by the value of patriarchal society, lacking the identity as "female" given by it due to her disqualified body, awakens with the awareness of the fluid nature of identity through constant resistance, and hence dismantles the identity given by patriarchal society and constructs multiple identities which open to future possibilities.Joan's dilemma starts from her body. One criterion for a female's value in patriarchal society is whether she has a slim body, which would please the male in terms of sight. Yet Joan is overweight, which means she is disqualified, so she becomes "a mass without sex" and is not regarded as a female, thus losing the "female" identity given by the society. Joan's earlier resistance against the dilemma is simply doing exactly the opposite, putting on more weight by overeating. However her overeating leads to another concealed trap:there are two suggested meanings in the identity that the society gives to the female. One is that a female's identity is single and stable, and the one given by the patriarchal society is the unique opportunity; another is that this "unique" one is merely connected to her body, excluding her mind. Therefore Joan's overeating is in fact still a struggle through body, which is by no means beyond the dimension that the patriarchal society arranges.After Aunt Lou's death, Joan comes to realize the damage her overeating may cause, so she diverts to another way of resistance:writing. Joan subconsciously and inevitably creates various identities (Gothic writer, poetess, wife, mistress, and so on) in her life, and since Joan is influenced by the identity the society gives, the identity she desires is single and stable; she is afraid of those multiple identities, and even plans a fabricated drowning to flee away. It is with the assistance of her writing that Joan, by blurring the boundary of fiction and reality, examines reality through fiction, and realizes that her identity should be multiple and fluid. Thus, Joan dismantles the single and stable identity connected to body, and gains the foundation and weapon of resisting against patriarchal society. It should be paid special attention to that multiple identities does not exclusively belong to the female; the male also have multiple identities. Thus although Joan starts from the female, the termination is human beings; searching for the female's identity at first, Joan finally finds multiple and fluid identities for human beings.By the analysis of Joan's search above, this dissertation concludes that Joan grows from a weak victim to an awakened woman. She successfully dismantles the single and stable identity connected to body, and constructs multiple identities with fluidity. Not only is her experience a enlightenment and contribution to the female's resistance, but also the mode of multiple identities puts forward for all, including the male, a way of living in a postmodern society.