Journeys Of Self-Discovery--Identity Crises In Wide Sargasso Sea And The Grass Is Singing

Jean Rhys and Doris Lessing are two world-renowned female writers. They sharesome similarities in their earlylife, living in a colony, experiencing the evil of colonialismand the hardship suffered by women there. After becoming writers, their works have beenpraised highly by feminists for their descriptions of women, particularly because of theconcerns showed by the two writers in their works about women's state of being and theirspecial fate. Intheirmasterpieces, WideSargasso SeaandTheGrass Is Singing,JeanRhysandDorisLessingportraytwodifferentwomenwhoaresubduedbythepatriarchalsociety,undergoidentitycrisesas wellasjourneysofself-discovery,andendtheirlivesinmadnessandwhoselivesarequiterepresentativeandofgreatsignificance.Thisthesisisanattempttoanalyzetheself-discoveryjourneysexperiencedbythetwoheroines, Antoinette and Mary, and the social, psychological, and marital causes of theiridentity crises, thus revealing the oppressions from the patriarchal society, and thesignificance of self-identity construction in women's self-consciousness. Self-identityconstructionmatcheswiththethemeofthefeministassertions,sothisthesiscanbeusedasa reminder for women around the world and be of some help to the feminist movement inpushingforwardwomen'sliberation.