A Study Of The Image Of Adolescents In Carson McCullers’ Three Novels

As a famous American female writer in the Southern Renaissance of the 20 th century,Carson McCullers is renowned for her grotesque style and her works depict various scenes of the American southern society.McCullers pays close attention to the growth of teenagers and creates vivid images of adolescent.At the same time,McCullers has endowed the images of adolescent with new vitality and characteristics with her unique creative art.By writing about the images of adolescent,McCullers has injected fresh blood and added new vitality into the diverse development of contemporary American initiation story.This article takes Carson McCullers’ three most representative works,The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,The Member of the Wedding,Clock Without Hands as the research object.Based on the the concept of bildungsroman theory,this article puts McCullers’ adolescent images under the background of the Amecican initiation story to analyze their “separation,transition,reintegration” hard growing journey,and to explore writer’s art technique in shaping adolescents,so as to revel the unique contribution which McCullers makes to American initiation story.This paper is divided into three parts: the introduction,the main body and the conclusion.The introduction part introduces McCullers and her works,summarizes the research on this subject at home and abroad,and illustrates the basis of the topic and the framework of the thesis.The main body consists of four chapters.The first chapter gives an overview of bildungsroman theory,mainly introduces the origin,development and definition of bildungsroman.Under the guidance of the theory,this paper further sorts out the development of American initiation story and concludes the features of American initiation story in different stages.The second chapter analyzes the growth of McCullers’ adolescent.Combined with the specific text,this chapter focuses on the difficult growth path of McCullers’ teenagers,which is the growth confusion they face,the relevant important events and the final outcome of the growth.The third chapteranalyzes the artistic sleight of McCullers’ adolescent image creation.McCullers’ images of adolescent are gothic in character.They are generally grotesque in appearance and behavior,and full of loneliness.At the same time,McCullers uses lots of symbols to describe the growing environment,experiences and adolescents themselves.In terms of narrative perspective,the alternations between the third-person omniscient perspective and the third-person limited perspective make McCullers’ images of teenagers more appealing.The fourth chapter expounds the significance of McCullers adolescent image writing.McCullers is an active explorer of contemporary American initiation story.The androgyny protagonist,the paired growth subject and the anti-growth consciousness of the protagonist embody her exploration and attempt of contemporary American initiation story.At the same time,McCullers also exposed the cruel social reality and expressed her strong criticism and unique thinking on the dross culture in the south of America by writing the image of adolescents.The conclusion part summarizes the whole paper.Initiation story is the reflection of American national mentality in literature and an important part of American literature.The adolescent images in McCullers’ novels inherit and develop the protagonist in traditional initiation story and make an exploratory attempt.She opened the prologue of the contemporary American initiation story together with the outstanding writers such as Salinger.At the same time,McCullers’ images of adolescents contain the author’s reflection and criticism on social reality,which have profound practical significance.