An Analysis Of The Characters’ Predicaments In The Memoirs Of A Survivor From The Perspective Of Symbolism

The Memoirs of a Survivor is one of Doris Lessing’s disaster novels. The novel focuses on the development of human self-consciousness and tries to release people from the constraints of the pains in life caused by split, despair and violence. From this people hunt for the balance between inner being and outer world so as to achieve the harmonious unity of the mind, words and behaviors. The thesis does research on the existential, spiritual and moral predicaments and the breaking through of these predicaments from the perspectives of symbolism. Relevant researches of both home and abroad are concentrated on female predicaments from the perspectives of feminism and there are few researches concerning the characters’ predicaments of this novel. Consequently, the research of this thesis is at some extent helpful for the understanding of the main idea of the novel. The meaning of the research on the characters’ predicaments is that it gives some suggestion for the perceiving and seeking of human future civilization. Besides, to analyze the novel from symbolism help improve the understanding of the readers in the using and application of symbolic techniques and enhance their appreciation standards of foreign language and culture.The thesis consists of three parts, an introduction, the main body and a conclusion.The first part is the introduction. It gives a brief introduction to The Memoirs of a Survivor. Then, the thesis analyzes the reasons of the writing of these predicaments and the characteristics of these descriptions about predicaments. Lessing depicts the existential, spiritual and moral predicaments and the breaking through of these predicaments using the techniques of symbolism. The reasons why Lessing writes about these predicaments are as follows. Firstly, the influence of the humanitarian thoughts in the literary works; secondly, her free and equal thoughts brought about by African living experiences; thirdly, her thinking about the two world wars and the cold war. We can find there are big human predicaments in small characters’ predicaments and that the darkest and most hopeless predicaments reveal hope and brightness, salvation and rebirth.The second part is the main body of the thesis, which includes four chapters.The first chapter introduces symbolism and its influence on The Memoirs of a Survivor. The Memoirs of a Survivor is made up of the memories of a middle-age woman, or the narrator, who survives in the disaster. Among these memories, there are dreams and imaginations. Both her dreams and imaginations have their symbolic significance. And every little thing happens in the novel has its own symbolic meaning. Lessing’s predicaments description are demonstrated by means of symbolic dream, imagination, memory, psychology, images, stream of consciousness and the use of symbolic contrast and foregrounding techniques. Besides, symbolic elements like the repeated occurrence of color words, images and the changes of scenes also have their own symbolic meaning.The second chapter analyzes the existential predicaments of the characters from three aspects, namely, the devastated natural environment, the collapsed human civilization and the indifferent social system. Dead silence and choking disastrous scenes like destructed city, shortage of natural resources, and sparsely populated streets, all represent the natural existential predicaments of the characters. From the analysis of hero Gerald, Emily and the family of White, etc, the thesis demonstrates the characters’ predicaments under the system of patriarchy and the separation of characters under the system of hierarchy. The last section of this part is related to the symbolic images that represent the breaking through of the existential predicaments.The third chapter is divided into two parts: the lack of spiritual belief and the depressed self of women. To speak concretely, the thesis analyzes the characters’ mental predicaments from the wandering crowd, the growing of Emily, the narrator’s memory, the room behind the wall, the white clock and other images like that. The last section of this part is regarding the symbolic images that represent the breaking through of the mental predicaments.The fourth chapter is divided into two parts: corrupted government departments and degraded human nature. To speak concretely, the thesis analyzes the characters’ moral predicaments from indifferent upper class official departments, degraded family of Ryan, violent children gang and other images like this, demonstrating the melting of democratic political responsibilities and obligations, the desalinating of personal ethical values and moral modes and the lack of education. The last section of this part is concerning the symbolic images that represent the breaking through of the moral predicaments of the characters.The third part is conclusion. Firstly, this part concludes briefly the whole thesis. Secondly, the innovative points of the thesis are the analysis of the characters’ predicaments and breaking through of these predicaments from the perspective of symbolism, such as symbolic images and foregrounding techniques. Thirdly, the final conclusion and the realistic meaning of this thesis is that people should learn to undertake and cherish, to respect and abide by the natural rules and to get along with nature harmoniously, to enrich the inner world and set up spiritual pillar, to improve our personalities, to hold fast to human ethical moralities and karma principles and to rehabilitate and rebuild material and spiritual civilization, if people want to break through self-existential, mental and moral predicaments and avoid disasters.