Family·Self·Growth: Rebecca’s Journey Of Growth In Back When We Were Grownups

Anne Tyler stands out among the multiplicity of novelists who have achieved well-deserved places in contemporary American literary circle.Her themes involve numerous family problems in American middle-class families,like love,hate,desolation,and alienation.Her fifteenth novel Back When We Were Grownups discusses the themes,like family,self-value,female growth and so on.People are interested in these topics but also confused by them.When she is young,Rebecca steps into marriage hurriedly and gradually loses herself in the family.After she realizes it,fifty-three years old as she is,she still goes out of the family and starts her self-pursuit journey.She goes back to her hometown Virginia and visits her first boyfriend.She even attempts to finish her studies in college life.However,she eventually understands that her growth is realized within the family because the family has taught her responsibility and the essence of life.She comes back to the family with a better understanding of herself.This thesis aims to analyze Rebecca’s journey of growth in Back When We Were Grownups from the feminist perspective.The three stages of Rebecca’s journey show that family is not the root reason for Rebecca’s lost because she returns to family eventually.Females are supposed to make a balance between family responsibility and self-pursuit to realize a real growth.This thesis consists of five parts.A brief introduction to Anne Tyler and her works will be given in Chapter One.The first chapter also includes the contemporary studies at home and abroad about Tyler’s works.Moreover,it puts forward the possibility and value of the research from the perspective of feminism.Chapter Two displays how Rebecca chooses marriage and gradually loses herself in the family life.She steps into marriage in haste and performs the gender roles of patriarchal society,which causes her confusion.Chapter Three looks into Rebecca’s self-discovery.She goes out of the family and starts to pursue herself.She mainly struggles from two aspects,personal life,and individual emotion.Chapter Four discusses that Rebecca returns to the family and achieves her growth.She has new recognition towards love and life and eventually realizes that family does not hinder her growth.The conclusion part provides Anne Tyler’s feminist views and some suggestions for modern females from Rebecca’s self-pursuit experience.