An Analysis Of Characters' Identity In A. S. Byatt's The Children's Book

As a productive writer,A.S.Byatt wrote many brilliant novels,her novel The Children's Book,being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2009,won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2010.It traces the lives of the four families living in the age of turbulence—from the late Victorian period to World War I.The parents in the novel are eager to control and influence their children,in the name of love.Born at the end of Victorian era and growing in Edwardian era,the children are heading for a darker future.Some of them raise the question “who am I?” “How to identify myself?” Then the children begin to seek their own identity in the changing world,rebel against their parents' wishes,going their own ways and seeking for their own independence.After struggling against adversity,some of them finally succeed in identity-seeking,while some fail.As for the adults,in the face of their children's rebellion and even death,are overwhelmed by sorrow and depression.The main body of the thesis is divided into five parts: The first chapter is introduction,elaborating the author and her works,literature review,theories of identity,thesis statement and structure.Chapter?elaborates the children's identity,it starts from analyzing children's identity confusion,then moves on illustrating children's difficult journey of pursuing identity.Chapter ? analyzes adults' identity,focuses on how Olive regards the children as her own object of desire,writing fairy tales for all of her children,and putting her own desires and thoughts into them,controlling the children's thoughts and actions,how Olive finally realizes that it is her “love” kills Tom,eventually plunges into extreme sadness and remorse,and how Fludd,who has odd love and control desire for her daughters,is overwhelmed by depression and flees from the real world by suicide,thus his identity is deconstructed.Chapter ? deals with several ways of identity pursuit in the novel,analyzing in detail how Tom's hope for rescue becomes illusions of Utopia—the fairy tale,the drama and the tree house,the roles which sex plays in the complex relationships of the adults in their process of identity pursuit.How Tom and Fludd get redemption in death,and how Dorothy struggles through her identity pursuit.Finally,in Chapter?conclusion,the thesis summarizes the ideas of the whole thesis,emphasizing identity problem is an eternal topic.The characters Byatt creates are undoubtedly providing a way of thinking for us to read people's identity in the modern society.The novel is full of her sympathy for the people who are living in the turbulent society,and provides some ways of identity pursuit.