The Grass Is Singing is the first published book of Doris Lessing, a famous British female writer, whose novels are largely concerned with people involved in the social upheavals of the 20th century. This story is about a white farmer Dick and his wife Mary and their black servant Moses in Africa. In this novel, Doris Lessing presents readers with the tragedy of Mary, who has suffered a lot from the patriarchal ideology and racial discrimination in that society. This paper first analyzes the embodiment of Mary’s tragedy from such aspects as her unhappy childhood, her unsuccessful marriage and her miserable ending, and then aims to probe into the causes leading to Mary’s tragedy from the perspective of ecofeminism: as a colonist, she cannot harmoniously coexist with nature; as a woman, she cannot equally get along with men. In conclusion, her alienation from nature has caused nature to take revenge on her; the pressure from her incompetent father has distorted her view of men; the physical and mental oppression from her husband has ruined his illusion about marriage; the cruel revenge from her lover has directly resulted in her tragic ending.
| Published in | International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 9, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17 |
| Page(s) | 40-45 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Ecofeminism, Cause, Tragedy, Inequality
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| [2] | Yi Ni. From Oppression to Harmony: Analysis of The Grass Is Singing from the Perspective of Eco-Feminism [D]. Xi’an International Studies University, 2016. |
| [3] | Nancy R. Howell, Ecofeminism: What one needs to know [J]. Zygon, 1997 (2). |
| [4] | Ahmed, Mohammad Kaosar. Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing: Anatomy of a Female Psyche in the Midst of Gender, Race and Class Barrier [J]. International Journal of English and Literature, 2013 (1). |
| [5] | Wang, Joy. White Postcolonial Guilt in Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing [J]. Research in African Literatures, 2014 (3). |
| [6] | Mutekwa, A. & Terrence Musanga. Subalternizing and Reclaiming Ecocentric Environmental Discourses in Zimbabwean Literature: (Re) reading Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing and Chenjerai Hove’s Ancestors [J]. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2013 (2). |
| [7] | Li Beibei. A Psychological Ayalysis of Female Characters in The Grass Is Singing under the Vision of the Theory of Spatial Anxiety [J]. Journal of Changsha Aeronautical Vocational and Technical College, 2016 (03). |
| [8] | Wang Tingting. An Existentialist Interpretation of the Heroine in The Grass Is Singing [D]. Ningbo University, 2013. |
| [9] | Liu Yuting. Mary Living under Triple Traumas --- An Interpretation of the Tragic Destiny of the Heroine of The Grass Is Singing [J]. Journal of Changchun Education Institute, 2015 (11). |
| [10] | Luo Rong, Deep Analysis of the Root of the Heroine’s Tragedy in The Grass Is Singing [D]. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 2011. |
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| [12] | Chen Haiyan. An Anaysis of Mary’s Growth in The Grass Is Singing from the Perspective of Female Bidlungsroman [D]. Hunan University, 2017. |
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APA Style
Lei Zhu, Ziyi Huang. (2021). An Ecofeministic Analysis of the Causes of Mary’s Tragedy in The Grass Is Singing. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 9(1), 40-45. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17
ACS Style
Lei Zhu; Ziyi Huang. An Ecofeministic Analysis of the Causes of Mary’s Tragedy in The Grass Is Singing. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2021, 9(1), 40-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17
AMA Style
Lei Zhu, Ziyi Huang. An Ecofeministic Analysis of the Causes of Mary’s Tragedy in The Grass Is Singing. Int J Lit Arts. 2021;9(1):40-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17,
author = {Lei Zhu and Ziyi Huang},
title = {An Ecofeministic Analysis of the Causes of Mary’s Tragedy in The Grass Is Singing},
journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {40-45},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20210901.17},
abstract = {The Grass Is Singing is the first published book of Doris Lessing, a famous British female writer, whose novels are largely concerned with people involved in the social upheavals of the 20th century. This story is about a white farmer Dick and his wife Mary and their black servant Moses in Africa. In this novel, Doris Lessing presents readers with the tragedy of Mary, who has suffered a lot from the patriarchal ideology and racial discrimination in that society. This paper first analyzes the embodiment of Mary’s tragedy from such aspects as her unhappy childhood, her unsuccessful marriage and her miserable ending, and then aims to probe into the causes leading to Mary’s tragedy from the perspective of ecofeminism: as a colonist, she cannot harmoniously coexist with nature; as a woman, she cannot equally get along with men. In conclusion, her alienation from nature has caused nature to take revenge on her; the pressure from her incompetent father has distorted her view of men; the physical and mental oppression from her husband has ruined his illusion about marriage; the cruel revenge from her lover has directly resulted in her tragic ending.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - An Ecofeministic Analysis of the Causes of Mary’s Tragedy in The Grass Is Singing AU - Lei Zhu AU - Ziyi Huang Y1 - 2021/03/09 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17 DO - 10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17 T2 - International Journal of Literature and Arts JF - International Journal of Literature and Arts JO - International Journal of Literature and Arts SP - 40 EP - 45 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2331-057X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210901.17 AB - The Grass Is Singing is the first published book of Doris Lessing, a famous British female writer, whose novels are largely concerned with people involved in the social upheavals of the 20th century. This story is about a white farmer Dick and his wife Mary and their black servant Moses in Africa. In this novel, Doris Lessing presents readers with the tragedy of Mary, who has suffered a lot from the patriarchal ideology and racial discrimination in that society. This paper first analyzes the embodiment of Mary’s tragedy from such aspects as her unhappy childhood, her unsuccessful marriage and her miserable ending, and then aims to probe into the causes leading to Mary’s tragedy from the perspective of ecofeminism: as a colonist, she cannot harmoniously coexist with nature; as a woman, she cannot equally get along with men. In conclusion, her alienation from nature has caused nature to take revenge on her; the pressure from her incompetent father has distorted her view of men; the physical and mental oppression from her husband has ruined his illusion about marriage; the cruel revenge from her lover has directly resulted in her tragic ending. VL - 9 IS - 1 ER -
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