An Analysis Of "Paradise" Image In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman is a well-known contemporary British writer of Children's Literature. His Dark Materials trilogy, his masterpiece, has received great attention from both the readers and literary critics. In 2007, the first novel of the trilogy, The Golden Compass was selected by the judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's literature as one of the ten most important children's novels in the past seventy years. Since published, a large number of scholars have studied on it from various kinds of perspectives, such as the science fiction features, symbols, the use of Biblical narrative and so on. However, in China, no research on this trilogy has been done yet. With detailed and repeated reading, this thesis analyzes the "paradise" image in His Dark Materials from the following three aspects:the images of the main characters, fall of "Adam and Eve" and death. In the Western culture, paradise usually refers to the Garden of Eden in The Bible and Paradise Lost. However, "paradise" in His Dark Materials involves with some other elements like fairy tales, science, and death. The "paradise" in His Dark Materials is actually a replica of the real life which is full of sorrow, war, death. But it aims to show not only the dark side but also the bright side of life, and this "paradise", wrapping itself with aesthetic values, always carries on a greatly positive attitude towards future.