Race,Family And Religion:Social Criticism In Carson McCullers’s Novels

Carson McCullers is a southern female writer,who shined in American literary world in the 1940 s.Her novels,rooted in the southern history and its complicated process,inherited the social criticism and became an important force in realist criticism in the southern Renaissance.Set in the background of the social,historical and cultural changes in American society from the 19 th century to the20 th century,the article starting out from the relationship between literature and society,mainly focus on the social and historical changes in the south which were recorded by McCullers.Based on different analysis of race,family and religion,the article highlights McCullers’ s critical attitude towards the three aspects.These issues not only disclose and criticize some social practices but also reflect her inner thoughts.This paper consists of three parts.The introduction gives a brief account of the McCullers’ s life,her writing and research status.At the same time,research perspective and method of this study will be put forward.The main body is composed of three chapters.The first chapter mainly discusses the criticism of racism in McCullers’ s novels.McCullers mainly expresses the oppression of racism by writing about the death of four typical characters.The second chapter mainly discusses McCullers’ s novels on the patriarchal oppression of southern families and pays attention to how to broke “Southern Family Romance” model.The third chapter mainly discusses the revelation and reflection of the loss of faith in southern society in McCullers’ s novels.It mainly analyzes the two conditions:one is the lack of faith,the other is the presentation of the secularization of religion.In addition,explore the new way of soul salvation proposed by the author combined with personal experience.The concluding part will make a summary improvement to the thesis.Based on the research in this paper,the author believes that the South criticized by McCullers is the true South after the collapse of the “Southern Myth”.In addition to criticizing the ills in southern society,the author also reflects on the impact of modern forces on the valuable side of southern traditions.The final vision is still on how to adapt to the current living environment.