Power Writing In Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples

Eudora Welty(1909-2001)is a famous American female writer.Her works rooted in the nuanced observation of life in the southern United States and her feelings about human nature.It is through her description of life in the southern United States that people recognize the universal significance and value of her work.This thesis bases on Welty's short story collection The Golden Apples(1949)as the research object,and power is the theme of the creation of the novel.Through a close reading of the text,combined with Welty's life and creative practice,it is a new interpretation.The writer employs Foucault's power theory to analyze and interpret the novel,especially to explore and analyze the oppression of rights suffered by characters.First,the thesis analyses how the patriarchal system directly controls women's body and it bases on the oppressed body of Easter and the seduced body of Mattie Will,focusing on how Loch and King MacLain make use of male power to harm women.Second,this thesis discusses the surveillance of life in the novel.For example,traditional southern ladies are regulated and disciplined in camping training,and the life of exotic woman Eckhart is exposed to people's vision.Women,monitored by patriarchal systems and the internalized maternal networks,live in a place which is similar to the prison.Third,this thesis focuses on the discipline of discourse.Ran suffers from the control of the discourse because he hardly escapes from it.Virgie has been widely discussed by everyone.She understands that she can't fight with her personal strength,so she chooses to leave.In summary,this thesis starts from the related knowledge of disciplinary power to analyze how people are physically and psychologically tortured.The weak women and men in The Golden Apples try to resist the oppression of power.Although they all fail,this also challenges the deep-rooted patriarchal system of the southern society to a certain extent.Although only Virgie successfully completes the cognitive process,it has certain practical significance for guiding women's self-concern.It also expresses Welty's eager hope to build a harmonious male-female relationship.