An Ecofeminist Interpretaton Of The Thorn Birds

Based on the ecofeminist theory, this thesis analyses Colleen McCullough's most famous novel The Thorn Birds to explore the ecofeminist sensibility revealed in it. Through the description of the rural Australia, Colleen McCullough demonstrates that human beings'fates are indispensibly linked with that of nature, which is not only human beings'living environment but also their spiritual home. Then through the lives and experiences of women of the three generations, Colleen McCullough analyses the causes for female straits and explores how to build a harmonious male-female relationship. Her claims are linked directly with the foundational tenet of ecofeminism: the advocation of holist thinking, the ending of all forms of oppression and the establishment of a supportive and harmonious relationship among humans and between human and nature in the nonpatriarchal ways. Mainly from a textual level, this thesis attemps to get the conclusion that Colleen McCullough is an author with ecofeminist consciousness, who advocates the harmony between men and women, human and nonhuman world and explores ways for the two sexes and human-nature to develop harmoniously.