An Interpretation Of Orleanna’s Self-realization In The Poisonwood Of Bible

The Poisonwood Bible,written by Barbara Kingsolver,a contemporary American female writer.The story is based on the historical facts and took the writer 10 years study of The Bible and Dark Heart written by the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.Since its publication in 1988,it has received wide attention and respect from the critics.Kingsolver herself became the first American author who win the Edward Abby Eco Fiction Award four times in a row.The story is rich in content,including history,religion,race,feminism,naturalism,post-colonialism and is known as one of the post-colonial classics comparable to Joseph Conrad’s Dark Heart.The domestic and foreign scholars have analyzed the novel from the perspectives of narration,intertextuality,stylistics,postcolonial literature and feminism,but rarely studied from the perspective of the analytical psychology.This thesis will open up a new perspective for it.From the perspective of analytical psychology,Carl Jung’s archetype theory to interpret the self-realization of the heroine Orleanna,aim to provide a broaden perspective for the readers to think about self-realization versus modernity and motivate people to think about the spiritual growth.The thesis is comprised of three parts: Introduction,Body and Conclusion.The first part is Introduction.In this part,a main brief description of The Poisonwood Bible and the writer Kingsolver,summarizes the research of The Poisonwood Bible,introduces Jung’s archetype theory and also introduces the content of the thesis.The second part is the main body of this thesis,which consists of three chapters.Chapter One analyzes Orleanna’s loss of the Self.By analyzing the causes and interactions of the protagonist’s archetype,which is the unconscious reason cause her lost her self.According to Jung’s archetype theory and the detail description of the protagonist written by Kingsolver to analyzed that Orleanna has not realize the existence of shadows and the false persona.Because Orleanna could not realize that,the shadow can only be expressed through externalization and projection.Chapter Two analyzes Orleanna’s rediscovery of the Self.Under the background of the patriarchal system and the war between America and Africa,Orleanna lost her youngest daughter unfortunately,which is the main reason to inspire her unconscious.She began to unveiling the mask she has been wearing for years and have an individual mind,thus moving forward to her pursuit of the animus inside her.Chapter Three analyzes Orleanna’s integration of the Self.According to Jung’s archetype theory of self,analyzes Kingsolver’s psychology when she wrote the novel to find how Orleanna incorporates the shadow into the scope of consciousness and assimilate and eliminate it.At the same time,Orleanna reconstructed her persona to adapt herself to the society.The last part is the conclusion,summarizing the whole text,analyzing Orleanna through Jung’s archetype theory,exploring the causes of the mask and persona,dig the complex changes of Orleanna,which further reveals the far-reaching social significance of spiritual struggle.Through the study of Orleana’s self-realization,it not only provides a new perspective for studying the novel,but also has a great significance for the spiritual salvation and growth of contemporary people.