A Study Of Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds From The Perspective Of Ecofeminism

The Thorn Birds is the masterpiece of contemporary Australian female writer Colleen McCullough. It is published in 1977. Since its first publication, the book brought the writer worldwide fame, and is reputed as the "Gone with the Wind of Australia", and one of the ten modern classics.The Thorn Birds is a blockbuster family saga, which vividly retells the story of the three generations of the Clearys from 1915 to 1969 including the two world wars. Three female characters in the story have distinct experiences and fates. They reflect the Australian women’s growth at different historical stages. After its publication, it caused the instant attention of critics home and abroad. Of all the research, many of which mainly focus on the theme of the novel, feminism theory as well as the writer’s narrative strategy. In former research, critics studied the women’s independence and the description of nature separately, but studies on combining women and nature in the novel together are little. Therefore, the thesis applied the theory of ecofeminism to interpret The Thorn Birds, and tries to give a better understanding of the themes and characters.Colleen depicts the ecological and feminine crisis from another aspect by revealing men’s domination and destruction toward women and nature in the novel, and by exploring the similarities between nature and women, Colleen also reflects her strong humanistic concern. Through evaluating the links among women, men and nature, especially exploring the intimate connection between women and nature, the thesis has also explored the writer’s humanistic concern and social enlightenment behind the ecofeminist ideas. All the exploration and interpretation would give us some kind of positive significances:only women and men are in the same status and men give their respect and trust toward nature, the society and the relationship among men, women and nature can be harmonious. Meanwhile, the ecofeminist interpretation of the novel can also make us reexamine our activities and receive some benefit.This thesis is divided into five parts:Chapter one mainly focuses on the brief introduction to the author and her literary works, literature review of the novel, and the theoretical basis as well as the significance and layout of the thesis; Chapter two deals with the relationship between men and women through analyzing the male characters’oppression on the female characters as well as the revolting of the females in the novel; Chapter three focuses on the relationship between man and nature in the patriarchal society in the novel; and Chapter four is devoted to the analysis of the links between women and nature, the writer explores the similarities between women and nature through comparing the aspects of experience, status and symbol. The symbolic links between nature and women are obvious whether in the western culture or eastern culture. Nature is always "feminized", while women are usually "naturalized", and this chapter also points out Colleen’s view on the relationship among men, women and nature; Chapter five is the conclusion of this thesis. Based on the conclusion of the whole thesis, this part restates the ecofeminism theory and points out the significance of the study. Men and women should reexamine and reconsider their relationship with each other, and with nature. That is, only men and women achieve a balance status and reestablish man’s respect and trust toward nature, a harmonious world can be established.