Psychological Growth From Being Lost In Memory To Going Out Of Memory

Growing up in the South where modern consciousness pervades, Eudora Welty (1909-2001) is one of the American Southern female writers with world-wild reputation. Based on her hometown Mississippi River Delta, her works are full of strong local flavor. Since her works are set in "the American Southern Renaissance", they follow the traditional style of American Southern literature on the one hand, and are endowed with modern literary scenery on the other. To a certain extent, her works are the combination of the traditional Southern literature and modern literature. Welty is excellent at using images to dig out meanings of the past for people in the modern society. The characters created by Welty usually awaken themselves from the situation of chaos. They are aware of the importance of the past and they cherish the past while not living in the past. Their actions manifest an active view on life to face the changed world.We can see since the American Southern Renaissance, the Southerners have made great efforts in the field of cognition. This result is mainly attributable to the Southern social changes which range over social culture, economy and politics since the 1960s. Through probing into the past, the southerners aim to reexamine the South to find a new way of understanding the present and find a survival pattern. By doing so, they can face the changing South objectively.The novel The Optimist's Daughter was written in the 1960s and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Through describing the disturbance in the household happening to the heroine Laurel, the novel shapes the image of a typical American Southern female vividly. Laurel lives in the interior loneliness since the death of her parents and her husband. Especially, after father's death, the home will not belong to her any longer. So she loses herself in the memories and meditation of the old times. However, as a new female in American South, Laurel can try her best to slip the leash of nostalgia. She makes up her mind to leave the hometown and go out of the past memories to go back to Chicago to live her new life. Laurel gives a clear expression of the past that the past can never be awakened and one can do nothing to the past. "The memory can be hurt, time and again—but in that may lie its final mercy. As long as it's vulnerable to the living moment, it lives for us, and while it lives, and while we are able, we can give it up its due." (207) The story seems on the surface to be a domestic tragedy. Since the psychological change of the character from getting into memory to going out of memory to the reality is based on the special social setting, the novel takes on noticeable historical features.Based on the text of the novel and starting from the motives of creation, this thesis tends to analyze the psychological growth of the Southern females from being lost in memory to going out of memory to face the changed world. It also probes the rooted causes of this change in light of Maslow's theory of human needs. It refers to why and how the American Southern females forget the past memory and press on to the reality of the life. Structurally, the thesis is mainly composed of four chapters.Chapter one mainly discusses the reason why the writer chooses the themes of memory and change from the respect of social background and Welty's complex to the South, including the influence of the writer's life experience and literature tradition to her writing. The novel has something of an autobiography: the writer's personal experience and domestic calamity. And Welty is the archetype of the heroine. Influenced by the traditional literature, Welty focuses on the theme of memory with great passion. The social change in the Twentieth Century and the appearance of the Modernism provide social background and literature background for the Southerners' personal change respectively.Then chapter two is devoted to the analysis of the reason why the heroine loses herself in memory. From the view of the heroine Laurel, the loss of the family members gives her a heavy blow which brings great ambivalence, confusion and pain to her. So Laurel is lost in the past memory, which is also considered by Welty the only way to find comprehension and solace. The harmonious past and the crucial reality form drastically contrast. However, the journey of memorizing the past is also a process of reexamination and acceptance of the past imperfection. It provides the heroine a chance to give up the past and go into the reality. Maslow's theory about human needs is mentioned in this chapter as the root causes of the memory. Human beings have the need for giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belongings. And these needs contribute to human's changes.Chapter three mainly talks about Welty's unique approaches to present memory from the perspective of the structure and images. The images of birds are widely used in the novel. The bird in the storm symbolizes both memory itself and Laurel. In the last phase of the novel, freeing the bird means freeing the heroine herself from the memory. The breadboard is the carrier of the memory which gives Laurel the sense of love and belonging. And giving up the breadboard also hints Laurel's releasing of memory and going back to reality.The last chapter serves to bring forth Laurel's self-renewal and wakening of self-awareness. Laurel realizes the imperfection of the past, through reexamining the marriages of her parents and herself. The acceptance of the stepmother's role hints the acceptance of the reality. According to Maslow's theory, apart from the need for giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belongs, human beings also have the need for self-esteem and for self-actualization. All the releasing action of the past suggests that the heroine has achieved a complete recognition and acceptance of the imperfect past and present. It is the true portrayal of life of the new generation in the South.With the above analysis, a conclusion can be achieved that the modern Southerners have awakened self-awareness to be out of the past to face the changed society.