从女性主义视角分析《小镇畸人》中的女性形象

樊倩倩

摘  要：《小鎮畸人》是舍伍德·安德森最具代表性的一部作品，由25个小故事组成，在美国文学史上具有重要地位。作者所处的社会建立于以男性为中心的父权体系之上，女性主义雏形开始出现。因此本论文从女性主义角度出发，从传统女性、新女性和理想女性来解读小说中的三种不同类型的女性形象，以期对现代女性的精神情感方面会有所启示，鼓励现代女性成为新时代的独立女性。

关键词：《小镇畸人》;女性主义;女性形象

Winesburg，Ohio was the product of the industrial times. The content of this novel reflected a series of social phenomena like countryside urbanization，agricultural modernization and transportation modernization，which were consistent with the society reality. This novel was a series of short stories set in the small Ohio town at the end of the nineteenth century. The novel was composed of 25 short stories，in which mainly described the life of the residents who were constricted by tradition and not able to adapt themselves to the new times. Anderson vividly presented a picture of an American town. Those people who lived in Winesburg were grotesques suffering spiritual illness and mental loneliness so that they were grotesques. All people in this text were too delicate to be able to express their inner thought to others. Those stories and leading roles are all connected by George Willard.

1.The Tragedy of Traditional Women

At Andersons times，men were the center of the society and women should serve for men. Women were inferior to men. Most women did not have jobs and they devoted their life to the men. In Winesburg，people were conventional，and among eight female roles，Alice was the most dependent one，even though she has the thought of being equal and independent. In this novel，Alice was a typical victim of the patriarchal society.

In the story Adventure，Alice Hindman was a representative of traditional woman. When Alice was sixteen years old，she fell in love with the young man named Ned Currie who worked at a newspaper office. She had sexual relationship with him. Ned was older than Alice，they had planned their future life. But Ned wanted to create a better life for them，he decided to leave Winesburg for Cleveland to earn more money. Alice would like to accompany him with a strong determination.

Although Ned was touched by her words but still refused her and said to her that he would come back as soon as he got a great job. But after a long time，Ned forgot his promise and began to be attracted by the life of the city. However，Alice still strongly believed that Ned would come back one day after several years. She saved her money in order to look for Ned to try to reunite with him. She thought she belonged to Ned so that she could not marry anyone else.

Above all，Alice was a tragic traditional woman and she was imprisoned in her love. It was obvious that Alice was the tragedy of traditional women. Ned abandoned her，but she was deeply influenced by the traditional culture so that she could not love others. Therefore，as a modern female，we should have an independent spiritual quality. Our inner mental world should be strong.

2.The Struggle of New Women

From a mans point of view，a woman should stay at home and be dedicated to looking after the family，which was the traditional responsibility of women set by the society. If someone straightly and openly disobeyed their traditional role，it would arouse others surprises and evoke mans strong opposition. Elizabeth was a representative of the new women. Because of the society environment，there were a lot of difficulties during the process of achieving their aims，and women still made sacrifice with their great qualities. It was not easy for them to keep their quality in the men-dominated society.

3.The Construction of Ideal Female Image

According to the development of womans liberation movement，some new women won more and more supports to fight for themselves. Gradually，they were dying to have a place in the man-dominant society. At the latter period，women began to realize that there were more aspirations beyond these rights. Women recognized that it was high time to change their destiny. Women knew that they should get rid of the tie of traditional thought. Anderson also described some female images to show his attention and sympathy to women.

Andersons expectation for the future men-women relationship revealed his advanced view on women. His expectation made a breakthrough in the traditional view and produced significant meaning. Helen White was the symbol of Andersons thought of building harmonious relationship and building new female image. She stood for a kind of balance between women and men. She had the ideal personality for men and women. Anderson expressed his hope about the construction of ideal female through the female image of Tandy and Helen White.

4.Conclusion

This novel expressed Andersons sympathy and concern for women. For traditional women，their destiny were tragic.For new women，the process of their struggle was hard. For Elizabeth，she had been driving for her self-identity.

For our modern women，we should stick to our dreams and work hard to realize them. On one hand，women do have their jobs to become financially independent. On the other hand，women are supposed to expand their circles of friends and broaden their horizon. For marriage，women must be careful and think twice. They should pay attention to the character and connotation. In order to manage marriage well，people should communicate with each other. Otherwise，their marriage would be difficult to keep on.

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