Reconstruction And Disillusionment:a Study Of The White Female’s Identity In The Grass Is Singing

Doris Lessing, the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007, makes great contribution to the postwar literature of Britain. As Lessing lives in a Southern African colony in her early life, she experiences the evil of colonialism and the hardship in the life there, especially for women. After becoming a writer, Lessing has long been concerned about the women’s state of being, their special fate and their self-fulfillments which are reflected in her multi-genre themes. She is a prolific writer and her works have been highly praised by feminists particularly for her descriptions about how women pursue their integrity of self-identity. In Lessing’s masterpiece, The Grass Is Singing, she portrays Mary, a white woman, who is subdued by the double oppressions by living in the male-dominated colonial society, and undergoes identity crisis as well as a journey of self-construction, but ends her life as a failure. Mary’s life is quite representative and of great significance.The scholars home and abroad have studied The Grass Is Singing from multi-perspectives and achieved penetrating exploration of the work, including post-colonialism, feminism, eco-feminism, psycho, and the deconstruction of binary opposition. However, the previous studies of identity mainly focus on blacks who are oppressed by the colonialism, especially black women. To some degree, they ignore that white women also have undergone the identity crisis because of the same social background. This thesis attempts to analyze the marginalized identity, namely "the Other", the self-reconstruction journey experienced by white female, exploring the social and psychological causes of their failure in self-reconstruction, thus revealing the double oppressions from the internalization of colonialism and the penetration of patriarchy, addressing the significance of the self-awakening and strong self-consciousness in women’s self-identity reconstruction. As a white woman, the heroine Mary who attempts to get rid of the identity of "the Other" in colonial society through her whole life is a representative.Diachronic method is applied to study how Mary reconstructs her identity as a white woman in different periods. This thesis will analyze Mary’s constant quest for her integrity of self-identity during three periods discussed in three chapters respectively, which includes:Mary’s childhood, her adulthood, and her married life. During these different periods, Mary tries to change the low social status of traditional women in the society through resisting marriage, attempting to obtain economic independence through getting job opportunity actively, seeking freedom by escaping the marital fetters and pursues true love with black Moses with the reflection on the colonial ideology respectively. Meanwhile, Mary accomplishes her self-reconstruction from unconscious revolt to conscious quest in these three periods.By applying the research method, this thesis on the one hand, has attempted to explore the causes of Mary’s disillusionment from the external factors and the internal factors, helping the readers to retrospect the male-dominated colonial society in which Mary suffers bitterly, and witness the process of white female’s quest for self-identity. On the other hand, the quest for women’s integrity of self-identity matches with the theme of the feminist assertions, so the thesis can do some help for women’s quest for their self-identity and push forwards women’s liberation. In addition, it can be used as a reminder for marginalized women around the world, and be practical to provide some advice for women’s reconstruction in modern society.