The Disillusionment Of "the Southern Myth" In Eudora Welty’s The Golden Apples

Eudora Welty (1909-2001) is one of the most famous female writers in the southern United States in the 20th century. As the rising star of Southern Literary Renaissance, she inherites the traditional southern culture, and reflects the American women literary tradition. Welty’s writing is mainly about southern family and community, focus on interpersonal relationship,and shows a strong female aesthetic characteristics.This thesis chooses the novel The Golden Apples (1949) as the research object, the collection is the peak of Welty’s creation career.The Golden apples is constituted by 7 independent but interconnected stories. The stories took place in a small town of the south called Morgana from the beginning of the 20th century to the middle of the century, which last forty years, and the main characters throughout the whole novel. All stories under the general heading of the golden apple in Greek myth, follow the plotline of love, wandering and self-pursuit, and show the human emotion and pursuing in modern society under the wonderful vision of classical mythology. This paper mainly analyzes the disillusionment of the southern myth in The Golden Apples under the Southern culture, respectively discussed from the following three aspects:the disintegration of southern perfect family, the disillusionment of the Knight myths and the demise of the southern belle and the formation of southern new women.The thesis mainly includes the following five parts:The first chapter mainly analyzes the disintegration of perfect family in The Golden Apples, respectively discussed from two aspects:the collapse of the family and marriage breakdown. Father’s absence from family and mother become the dominant force in the family, which deconstruct the perfect family;men get away from home> extramarital affairs、family violence which deconstruct the sacred meaning of marriage.The second chapter mainly analyzes the disillusionment of the Knight myths in The Golden Apples. Firstly Welty deconstructs the male hero legend from the female perspective, Greek hero adds the hero halo for the male characters, but the traditional southern gentlemen and chivalry were no longer in existence. From the female perspective, MacLane’s roaming and Locke’s heroic act to save the Easter make no sense, and rape reveals the violence of male characteristics. Secondly, Randall and Eugene are confronted with the crisis of masculinity, the lack of paternal makes them unable to get the real masculinity, the loss of masculinity also verify the decline of male-dominated system.The third chapter mainly analyzes the evanescence of southern lady and the formation of new women. Welty created all kinds of female images, the traditional southern lady represented by Snowdie who took the family burden and suffered many hardships, was the guardian of the family. The second generation of women in Morgana is no longer passive waiting but actively exploring, their subject consciousness is awakening and recover the female power.Secondly southern girls experience growing pains and perceived the constraints and discipline for women from the patriarchal society. In the end final analyzes the southern new female characters represented by Virgie, who broaden her horizons and pursue the various possibilities of life for women by wandering, regain the female power by feeling harmonious with nature, rediscover life significance from music by recalling the past. Virgie complete the female’s subject construction through exploration and meditation, and start a new life in a more independent stance.Epilogue part further discusses Welty’s thoughts about the destiny of southern women, the relationship between men and women and southern women how to search for self-fulfillment and construct a harmonious relationship.