Pursuing Truth In Life

Joyce Carol Oates is a famous violence-writing author in America at present.She thinks that the violent scenes can better reflect the true parts of the society.Parts of her works are created according to her experiences and her family members'.The Gravedigger's Daughter is based on the life experiences of her grandmother Blanche.It presents the scenes of the Jewish surviving process in America after the Holocaust.The surviving process of the Jewish is full of insult,pain and injustice.Though the Jewish had suffered incurable disasters,the Jewish offspring like Blanche can still face life positively.The Gravedigger's Daughter is a biographical novel.The writing purpose of the biographical novel is to memorize her Jewish grandmother.Rebecca is the embodiment of Blanche.This biographical novel presents the living conditions and living attitudes of the three Jewish generations in America from the perspective of Rebecca.This thesis introduces Oates' life,main works and writing styles,and summarizes the main content of the Gravedigger's Daughter.After the analysis of the researches at home and abroad,the central and innovative points of the thesis will be put forward.In the theoretical foundation part,the definitions of biographical novel,biographical criticism and "truth" are put forward.The theoretical foundation is the structure principles of biography proposed by Professor Zhao Baisheng.Structure principles of biography include the writer and reader identity principle,the surrounding influence principle and the integrity principle.In the body part,this thesis interprets this novel from the perspective of the structure principles of biography.First,Oates' Jewish identity choosing process influences Rebecca's identity choosing process.Oates makes a reasonable imagination of Rebecca's life experiences after considering the factors like readers' reading tastes and readers' identity searching process.Second,Oates is influenced by the family environment and social environment in the process of writing.In the family and social environment,the influence of these characters is crucial.The characters in Oates' novel are created out of the combination of the characters in real life.Finally,this thesis analyzes the characters' experiences in the novel with some historical factors.The historical factors include the Holocaust disaster,the American racism and the surviving process of the Jewish in American society.It is found that Oates makes her characters closely related to readers' knowledge of the true Jewish history.This thesis is based on the theory of the structure principles of biography.It interprets the Gravedigger's Daughter from the writing of identity,character and history.The protagonist's identity,the plots and the historical scenes are the true reflections of the social life,which is based on the life experiences of Oates and her grandmother.This thesis proves that Oates is pursuing truth in life in the Gravedigger's Daughter.