Growth And Quest

The series of Children of Violence are regarded as a successful female bildungsroman. The author—Doris Lessing, pays attention to the growth of a girl named Martha, and describes her growth from adolescence to maturity. Bildungsroman is the eternal theme in western literature. Generally speaking, bildungsroman depicts unimportant person's development from cultural, immortal, psychological, and social aspects in the wide circumstance of society. The series of Children of Violence are divided into five books, and each book has four chapters. This structure is like a symphony, which gradually, vividly, and clearly tells a story about a woman's growth.Lessing delineates Martha's ceaseless growth and quest in the series of Children of Violence. Martha firstly quests for liberty in the colony as a white woman, and then she quests for the individual value in the society as a woman, and finally she quests for the self-realization in the world. This thesis is based on Lessing's Children of Violence and mainly focuses on the growing and quest which demonstrate Martha's unique change in psychological and social aspects. Meanwhile, it emphasizes the alteration of Martha's attitudes toward life. By doing this, we can further clarify Martha's chartless spirit of never giving-up, continuous passion and also the optimistic attitudes towards life.Since the publication of Children of Violence, many scholars tag it as the label of feminism, racism, Sufism and mysticism. Only few of the researchers study the stories from the perspective of female bildungsroman. And recently more and more scholars pay attention to female bildungsroman. Actually female bildungsroman has its distinguishing characteristics, comparing with traditional bildungsroman. It is suitable for women writers to talk about female's own experiences. Martha is the successful model moulded by Lessing, for she is always struggling from every aspect. Thus the series of stories are also meaningful for us in the modern society.This thesis consists of four chapters, the first chapter introduces briefly about the life of Doris Lessing and her works, the main content of Children of Violence, the theory of female bildungsroman, and thesis statement. The second chapter emphasizes on Martha's growth in the psychological aspect. Martha is in a dilemma of her role as a daughter, a wife and a mother. But with the help of mentors, she finally finds her identity and achieves her self-realization. Chapter three mainly studies Martha's growth in the social aspect. Martha's relationship with the society becomes disillusionment. And encouraged by her mentors, she found her social existence. Two images are described in this chapter to explain Martha's social growth. Chapter four discusses the roots of Martha's growth. And the last chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis.