The Grass Is Singing: A Narratological-Stylistic Analysis

Doris Lessing is one of the most outstanding writers in English literature.Lessing won the Nobel Prize for Literature in2007. Her first novel The Grass IsSinging has attracted increasing attention from readers and critics since its publication,making Lessing famous and popular all over the world. This novel tells the stories ofa white woman’s tragic life and the protest of the natives in southern Africa. Manyscholars try to dig out the reasons for the protagonist’s tragic fate from such aspects asrace, gender, love and society. This paper intends to explore the novel morecomprehensively from the narratological-stylistic perspective in order to understandthe tragedy of the character and the protest of the natives, find out the relationshipbetween the form and the theme and then find the aesthetic and artistic values.The thesis consists of seven parts. Chapter one summarizes Doris Lessing, thesituation of current study on The Grass Is Singing at home and abroad, as well as thesignificance and the methodology of the thesis, while chapter two is a panoramic viewof narratological-stylistics. Four parts of narratological-stylistics are introduced. Theyare characterization, setting, spatial form and point of view.Chapter three explores two characters, Mary and Moses. It makes a detailedanalysis of Mary’s voices and habitual action “cry” as well as Moses’ appearance andnaming pattern. Mary’s voices change in her different life stage. Moses’ great image,courageous look and his name indicate Lessing’s appreciation for Moses, and reflectthe whites’ fear for the natives.Chapter four mainly focuses on the settings like the house, the farm and the bushand their influences on themes and characters. The structure and the constructionmaterials of the house reflect the differences between the whites and the natives andthe superiority of the whites over the natives. Such differences cause Mary in thetrouble and conflict. The remote geographical position of the farm makes Mary alienfrom people. The bush as the symbol of the natives makes Mary restless in her mind. Chapter five discusses two spatial forms which are circular structure andwhirlpool structure. Mary’s repetition of her parents’ marriage life and her life on thefarm, in town, then on the farm forms the circles. But the core of the whirlpoolstructure in the novel is the madness and the death of Mary. Mary can not escape fromthe pull, only with the end of death.Chapter six is about the shifting point of view among characters and analyzesMoses in the eyes of the whites. Moses is great and courageous in the eyes of thewhites. The whites pay attentions to his look but can not understand Mosses’ innerworld. And it reflects the gap between the whites and the natives.The last part sums up the narratological-stylistics and the statements of the thesis.The narratological-stylistic approach can not only interpret the theme with richercomprehension but also find out Lessing’ writing art.