A Melancholy Song Of Life

According to Zhang-Ailing, the peaceful side of life is the nature of human being, or, in another word, the women's nature, which exists in almost every times and has everlasting meanings. A good work always shows the rising of life through describing the peacefulness of it. Hence, the strenuous pursue for a peaceful home is the main motif in Zhang-Ailing's novel writings, from which almost all the women's life tracks in her writings were evolved. And it was just in the course of their valiant struggle for peacefulness that their human natures were twisted which finally resulted in the deepest melancholy. From this aspect, this thesis analyzes the images of women in Zhang-Ailing's writings at three levels: Firstly, women seeked peacefulness from men. The peaceful side of life is the nature of women. Anyhow, various factors of history, reality, material and feelings promoted them to place the hope of realizing this ideal on men. For this, women did all they could to pay court to men and, in the meantime, they had no option but tolerate all the agony also caused by men. Secondly, women also vied for the peacefulness with women. The peaceful side of life, which seemed permanent, was not safe and was destroyed at times. Women had to yield to men. In the meanwhile, they could not but wage "serious but unbridled struggles" successively with other women. Women may eliminate and transfer the agony through other women, attacking or making use of them to preserve and rebuild a peaceful life. The third level is about the writer's melancholy reflections on life. Driven by desire and suppressed by chilly social cultural surroundings, women's human natures were twisted and alienated, which notably marked by their servility and "cannibalism" . Well...