Exploration,Resistance And Reconciliation

The theme of Feminism in the works of Joyce Carol Oates(1938-)has always been the focus on scholars’ research.There are few new research perspectives and a systematic approach to the spiritual growth of women in her work.Therefore,this thesis takes three of Oates’ works,Them,Foxfire and Missing Mom as the object of study,and discusses them from the perspective of Gender theory,breaking away from the traditional biological sex determinism,which preaches women cannot change their biological disadvantages.This paper attempts to provide an open and multifaceted perspective through Gender theory.The study finds that after the first women’s movement,the heroines in Oates’ initial masterpiece,Them,became aware of their plight as women in society and showed an exploratory stance;With the beginning of the second women’s movement,the women in Foxfire were more progressive than in Them in that they discovered the root cause of women’s oppression-the patriarchal system,and rebelled violently against the social norms of women’s gender.As a representative work in the medium term,Foxfire also shows the expectation of gender equality,and the answer to this expectation was given in Missing Mom;Combined with the arrival of the third women’s movement,after questioning and criticizing social traditions in the early stage,women in this period began to reflect,turning their attentions from the external patriarchal society to themselves,beginning to affirm the new social value of women,moving from gender antagonism to gender harmony,and finally constructing a rational,independent and equal female ideology.The significance of this article is that,based on the three waves of the women’s movement,the author has sorted out the progressive trends of women’s thought in Oates’ representative works in the three periods,and at the same time affirmed the practical significance of Oates’ thinking on women’s development: Respect for the diversity of women’s identity,rational thinking about the harmonious relationship between the gender,and independent self-awareness are necessary to obtain the true meaning of feminism.