The Women Pursuing Thorns

Colleen McCullough's masterpiece The Thorn Birds is a saga. The novel gives us a vivid description that the main characters are clinging to their love but are bent over by their fates and try to struggle against their fates. The thesis focuses on the analysis of three female characters, trying to discover their pursuit for love, struggle against fates and their vision of the meaning of life. First in this thesis is included a brief introduction to the writer, the novel and the symbolism of the thorn and the thorn birds. Afterwards it makes a deep analysis of the three female characters and explores the process of their pursuit for love and happiness. Based on these, the thesis examines the relationship between men and women, influence of male's value orientations on female's fates, and awakening of female's self-consciousness. A conclusion is drawn that women can gain happiness and realize self-value, as long as they are brave enough to pursue love and challenge the destinies. In addition, the true love and the beauty should be attained with unimaginable cost.