An Approach To The Creative Thought Of Pearl Buck

Pearl Buck is a famous American writer who won Nobel Price in literature in 1938. Living in China for 41 years, she was deeply influenced by Chinese culture and has an indissoluble bond with this country. She is the embodiment of the conflict, understanding and hybrid between Chinese culture and western culture. The culture in her hundreds of works, speeches and letters and historical contribution she made for the fusion of the two cultures won her important position in literature and history.The mainline of this thesis is the creative thought in novels written by Pearl Buck, surrounded by which are the social ethics and the view of women and farmersThe first chapter is on Pearl Buck's social ethics. We explore the historical sources of Pearl Buck's culture outlook which combines western and Chinese cultures. Double cultural backgrounds made her to be "a marginal writer". Pearl Buck devoted the whole life to the pursuit of cultural belonging, but it is just because of which built up her special foresight and made her to be a real cultural communicator. She subscribed to the positive meaning of Chinese new culture movement, meanwhile, she was also soberly aware the fracture of Chinese traditional cultural inheritance brought by this movement. She had special views not only on Chinese culture but also on western missionary work. On the one hand, she affirmed the contribution of the missionary work in China, on the other hand, she emphasized that the true expression of Christian belief were good conduct and the will of help others.The second chapter is on her view of women. Chinese women liberation reached its peak when Pearl Buck lived in China. As a pioneer of feminist movement, she created many vivid female images. Those images contained her understanding about women liberation and her exploration of the future of women. So this chapter has images of three kinds of women:the traditional, the transitional and the ideal. Pearl Buck showed her understanding of Chinese female movement and distinction between her and other western feminists though the analysis of those women. She praised the traditional virtue of eastern women, and at the same time she cherished their modernized consciousness. She considered the most precious spirit was self cognition and women liberation was the awakening of women themselves not men's consciousness. The most deep thought of her view to the feminist movement was she disapproved the opposition between men and women and women should not neglect the female characters and social role while pursuing social equality.The third chapter is on Pearl Buck's view of farmers. She won Nobel Prize in literature due to "her epic description about farmers' life". The most glorious and vitalized part of her works were the description of Chinese countries. This chapter explores her life in Suzhou which is the basis of creation of farmers' epics. Though comparing her works with other Chinese writers'books and discussing their differences and similarities, we show farmers'adoration and love to land in Pearl Buck's works. Besides, we also compare her works with those of left wing writers like Mao Dun, analyze their different views about farmers and land and conclude that the differences between Pearl Buck and other Chinese writers are Pearl Buck focuses on Chinese farmers as a group and digs out the influence of belief of land to the Chinese character.We analyze the thought and content of Pearl Buck's works with the purpose of seeing modern society during the period of multiple cultures in the 21st century though the special method of "double-focus perspective", that is to see the conflict and fusion of different cultures though the angle of multiculturalism. This is unquestionably the reference and enlightenment of how to solve the conflict between cultures when China faces western culture and Chinese culture in the 21st century.