| There is countless recordation in history and geography about the Niagara Falls which located in the north of New York.Its magic has attracted tourists all over the world to have a look of its magnificent view.The thunderous and shocking power of the Falls is daunting,and it may bring people a physical attraction which is mistakenly interpreted as "sacred",so,many people jump into the Falls to devote themselves so that they can get liberation,and the novel the Falls by Oates is based on this background.The thesis analyzes Oates’ s writing skills in the novel from the perspective of psychological realism which reflects reality through psychology and analyzes the characters’ struggle against fate and quest of self through the use of psychoanalytic theory of Freud and feminism theory.This thesis is divided into three parts.The first part analyzes the writing skills of psychological realism by Oates.It analyzes the use of inner monologues,stream of consciousness and recall,and compares the characters’ imagination with reality to reflect the character’s personality,at the same time dream and subconsciousness are also reflections of the character’s deep psychological state.The second part tells the story of the characters’ oppression and resistance.Under all kinds of oppression,Ariah felt anxious and finally compromised,Gilbert lost himself and Dirk suffered from the pain of war and indulged into a disrupted life.Later,they all resisted stubbornly,Ariah insisted on her own choice of marriage and work,Gilbert expressed his internal resistance with death,Dirk’s was betrayed by his friends and estranged from his family only for the sake of justice.The third part analyzes the pursuit of self of the offspring in the family,the three children who lost their father once lost their selves and became confused about their identity because of the stigma brought by the surname,but later they get their selves back and start a new life through the investigation of the father’s death and they finally revealed the truth and rectify the mistakes about their father’s honor.By analyzing the oppression and sacrifice experienced by the parents in this family and their offspring’s quest of self,we find the conflict between individual and society,love and marriage,justice and evil through the experience of two generations of a family in the novel.Oates’ s skills of psychological realism which reflects the reality through psychology also go through the whole text,and it also reflects the theme of the novel.The thesis attempts to expose the theme of the novel—struggle against fate and quest of self by analyzing the application of psychological realism in the novel. |
