An Analysis Of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life From The Perspective Of Positive Psychology

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2014, the authoress Megan Marshall’s book Margaret Fuller: A New American Life(2013) portraits the life story of a world renowned feminist writer Margaret Fuller(1810-1850). She draws heavily upon the primary documents of Margaret’s life such as her letters, essays, fiction and personal diaries. This biography unveils Margaret from the dustier shelves of history and manifests a pioneering female intellectual who has optimism, persistence and great courage to fight against conventional rules and achieve her self-actualization. The positive traits that she displays all her life empower her with boundless energy to explore her ideal self and live truly as a woman.Positive psychology emerged at the end of the last century. Unlike the conventional psychological analysis which focuses on the mental illness, positive psychology, as a new and developing discipline, explores human being’s developing potential, virtues, and strengths rather than various psychological problems of people. This thesis attempts to interpret Margaret Fuller: A New American Life from the perspective of positive psychology and aims to illustrate Margaret’s positive life attitude, so as to inspire and encourage contemporary women to identify and build up their own positive traits. By analyzing the process of Margaret’s self-actualization from the perspective of positive psychology, this thesis probes into Margaret’s positive traits, exploring how she, especially in difficult times, creates a new life for herself, which is full of hope and happiness.The thesis consists of three parts. The first part introduces the life experience of the authoress Megan Marshall, the main content of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life and a literature review of this biography. Besides, a brief introduction to positive psychology and the significance of this thesis is also presented in this part.The second part, as the main body of this thesis, contains three chapters. The first chapter deals mainly with Margaret’s positive personalities. The chapter begins by categorizing Margaret’s positive personalities, namely, strengths of wisdom, strengths of courage, strengths of love and strengths of transcendence. It is these positive personalities that have brought her through all the hard years.The second chapter explores Margaret’s positive emotions in a chronological order: her satisfaction with the past, happiness in the present, optimism about the future. Margaret’s positive emotions not only reflect her happiness but also contribute to her personal growth and development.The third chapter focuses on the positive environments around Margaret from three aspects including her parents’ influence, her friends’ help and the cities in which she lives in different stages of her life. Positive environments are not only the supportive force for her construction of positive personalities, but also a direct source to generate her positive emotions.The third part is the conclusion. After a summary of Margaret’s positive traits through the perspective of positive psychology, it further explores the relationship between Margaret’s self-actualization and her positive traits. Confronted with the difficulties in life, Margaret chooses to face them bravely instead of escaping from them and strives to actualize her ideal self with her positive energy. Her unparalleled talents and positive traits provide readers with an ideal image of a self-actualized individual. It is hoped that Margaret’s life story will serve as a model for women who expect to make a change in life and become their best.