Analysisofmodernfemalesattitudestowardlifethrough

Analysis of modern females attitudes toward life throughGone with the WindAbstract:Gone with the Wind has always been regarded as one of the most classic love stories in American literature. The protagonist of this masterpiece Scarlet s three marriages have always been the topic of its critics, audiences and readers. In regard of her marriages there had been many disputes, some think that three marriages ruined her happy life; but others hold the point of view that her three marriages helped her to know more about life and made her know how to pursue happy life. This paper attempts to help readers analyze this novel in the perspective of feminism to shed some new light on it. This thesis also tries to reveal modern females attitudes toward life through analysis of the protagonist of Gone with the WindScarlet s attitudes toward life.Key words:Female; independent; life attitude 摘要:飘历来都被认为是美国文学史上经典的爱情小说之一。这部闻名遐迩的小说的主人公斯佳丽的三次婚姻始终是评论家，观众及读者评头论足的对象。关于她的婚姻人们众说纷纭，争议颇多。有人认为：三次婚姻给她的幸福生活抹上了阴影。有人认为：正是这三次婚姻让她更加懂得了生活并懂得了如何去追求幸福生活。这篇论文试图从女性主义角度解读飘并赋予其新的观点。同时也试图通过对飘的主人公斯佳丽对待生活的态度的分析，揭示现代女性对待生活的态度。关键词:女性; 独立; 生活态度IntroductionAs time passes by, world is changing day by day at an amazing speed. Each field is developing and bettering. This is a highly developed society; everything here is quite different from that of the past. Time went back to the American civil war, conditions were fairly terrible, but before the starting of the war people there lived a happy and luxurious life. When the civil war broke out, and after a long time of fighting, a number of soldiers were dead, buildings were destroyed. All those belonging to the tranquil nation were changed beyond recognition. People had no house to live in, no food to eat, even no clothes to wear. What a terrible situation one can imagine! Many of the noblewomen in the south chose a way to be degraded. But there was a young and great woman fighting against these difficulties, and she firmly lived though life was awfully hard. This paper would like to analyze modern females attitudes toward life from the respect of marriage and marriage life, family and family life, women s careers and their educational level through the female character of Gone with the Wind- Scarlet. There had always been many disputes as to who should be responsible for women s happy life, and it has become the focus topic in today s society. The traditional viewpoints hold that man should account for women s happy life. A successful man can give a woman what she wants. Another point of view is that the society should be responsible for women s happy life and every class of the society should pay more attention to women s happy life. In this respect, women are regarded as a weaker group. But another fact also deserves peoples attention that women are sometimes lowered down by themselves; they are likely to rely on men. Today we advocate that there should not be gender discrimination, women should be responsible for their own happy life. I.Brief Introduction of the Author and the NovelA. Concise Introduction of the Author Margaret Mitchell was born in a lawyer?s family in 1900. When she was young, she often heard people talking about the civil war which made her interested in the war and people?s life condition in that period. In the beginning of1930s, she worked for the Atlanta newspaper office, where provided her lots of historical materials about American civil war. After her marriage, she resigned from the Atlanta newspaper office and began her composition of Gone with the Wind. It took her 10 years to complete this masterpiece. In 1936, Gone with the Wind was all the rage. So far, it was regarded as one of the most famous love novel in American literature.B. Concise Introduction of the NovelIn Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell portrayed the inferior position of women in the south of America during the 19th century. She also described a heroine Scarlet and her love entanglement with Ashley and Rhett. Scarlet was self-partial and priggish when she was a young lady; she was selfish and kind when she was a widow; she was shrewd and gainful when she was a businesswoman. Her life was filled with legend. Her ups and downs fully embodied her life condition and her attitude toward life. She was a common woman but she acted like a great woman did. She was a modern woman in old ages. Her bravery, independence, resolution and other personalities always encourage women in modern times. But whats modern womens attitudes toward life? The following parts will analyze their attitudes toward life. Analyzing Modern Females Attitudes toward Life through Several AspectsA. Marriage and Marriage LifeLong time ago, women had no right to choose their spouse, their marriage was determined by their parents, they must follow the man they married, no matter how bad and evil he was. However, today we own an equal era, in which woman can choose what kind of man she loves and decide how to live a happy life. Marriage is considered to be one of the most important things in women s life. Some even think that by marrying a rich man can one gain life s happiness. However happy life is usually given by oneself but not by marriage or by others. a. The protagonist of Gone with the Wind Scarlet was beautiful, shrewd, brave and independent. In the ordinary course of events, she can marry an excellent or rich man or at least a man that she loves and also she can live a sweet life. But, she chose another way of life; she really took every possible chance to make her future brighter. She first married Melanies brother Charley. Just two months later she became a widow. In order to get money, she married her sisters fianc Frank. From Starlets marriage life, we can clearly understand that life is not a play-game as well as marriage. As a woman, one should circumspectly consider of her life and marriage. But even so, plenty of women regard their own business as a bystander s business. They really do know that their own happiness is in their hands. However, some of them still choose to be degraded. Modern female s marriage attitude may be different from Scarlet s. Modern women are likely to treat themselves better and better. However, many modern females arent aware of what a happy marriage can bring to them. Even some enchanting, successful, rich and high-brow women choose another unusual way of life which broke their heart, demolished their family, destroyed their profession, even all their life, even so, they are not conscious of this. To take Tang Jieone of the earliest millionaires in Nan Jing city as an example, she was very successful in her fashion profession in her early years. She possessed her own company and a large number of money swarmed into her account. With the growing of money and promoting of social status, she began to feel ashamed of her low-brow husband; their nice marriage came into an end. The middle-aged woman Tang Jie went into such a way that she can never go back. She fell in love with a man, who was 12 years younger than her and was cheated by him, and then she again fell in love with another man who was 14 years younger than her, and again she was hurt by this man and was stabbed by him. She didnt believe love any longer, she became crazy for comforting by drugs, which later destroyed her whole life. The drug made her poor, she began to smuggle drug. This is one of those women who have money and all the luxurious goods; after all, she is unhappy and owns a tragic life. Modern women often lay stress on how to make money, but neglect what is more important in one s life. Therefore we modern women should attach great importance to happiness but not money only.b. Women are the master of their happy life and marriage life. Whether women can live a happy life or not is totally dependent on themselves. Women love beautiful things constitutionally and they always pay much attention to their appearance, so some women will blame god and men why they don t have good-looking and give themselves up as hopeless. One may not be charming, but one may be lovely; one can have good temper or one can dress up oneself. Beauty is not unique; it doesnt only refer to the beautiful face or slim figure. There are many things that are more enchanting than the charming face. Some women will be indignant with their husbands for their disloyalty to them in their marriage life. They are not to blame their husbands or scold or cry, instead, women should check themselves first. Suppose a woman is elegant, moral, capableher husband will not betray her. To take Scarlet as an instance, in her first two marriages, she did not suffer from such kind of embarrassment, in that she was beautiful and decent, but her last marriage was filled with such embarrassments, though she was still beautiful, she was eager to get money, and her heart betrayed her husband before her husbands betrayal, so she suffered from her husband s disloyalty.B. Family and family lifea. As one of the essential social institution in human history, the family probably arose because of the need for adults to devote a great amount of time to childrearing. Human infant must, for a large portion of their lives than for any other species, be cared for and taught by adults. And in the family rearing, women became the center of the family. It is better for women in the traditional family to stay at home and not to work outside. What a woman needs to do is to take good care of the child, to educate the child and to protect the child from going astray. But women in this century or the century before have much more things to do in a family. They are responsible for the security of a family, the happiness of a family. Besides, women have to work outside no matter how tough the work is. As in Gone with the wind, though Scarlet did not like her son Wade, she still has the obligation to rear him well. Many of such examples can be seen in today s society, women are burden with so much works. They serve not only as a good mother but also a virtuous mother. If they do something bad to their children or do some things that make their family members unsatisfied there will be much disputes which maybe one day or the other become the emotive gap among the family members. b. Throughout the human history, we have depended heavily on the family to provide both social order and economic success. Families have provided for the survival and development of children, for the emotional and physical health of adults, for the special care of the sick, injured, handicapped, and elderly, and for the reinforcement of social values. But today families in every corner of this world are facing growing problems. So the divorce rate increases sharply and parents increasingly decide to forgo marriage, with the consequence that a sizable number of children are being raised in single parent household, apart from other relatives. Large numbers of married women gave up the roles of fulltime mother and housewife to go into the labor market, while the activities of their former role have not been fully replaced. Another problems is that the focus of many families is shifting away from childrearing to the psychological wellbeing and selfdevelopment of their adult members. But what is the attitude of modern females toward these problems brought about by family?C. Difficulties and Difficult lifea. Women are often disturbed by trifling things and troubles around them and because of these trifles they become intolerant, pessimistic. In fact, a set of methods can help women jump from these trifles and free themselves from such pressure. Only the one who has the ability to deal with the forthcoming difficulties can live a relaxed life. In Gone with the Wind, the protagonist Scarlet was such an optimistic person; she did not worry about imaginary troubles. Whenever she met difficulties or she was in a dilemma, she never shrank back; instead, she confronted difficulties bravely. Though she had the idea of backslide, yet such kind of idea was finally overcome by her sense of achievement. She always kept the idea that every thing has its way to be settled. Because of such belief, Scarlet had really conquered some difficulties for several times.b. In common persons mind, women are inclined to make complaints, blame others or disturb oneself. Nevertheless, many women know well how to treat themselves and treat themselves well. Helen Keller was such an excellent woman. She was blind and deaf when she was only 19 months old, one can imagine such misery that her world became totally dark and silent after transient period of brightness. She can not hear the euphonious music of birds, she can not hear any sound of this wonderful world, and she can not see the nice flowers All that she touched or met is darkness and tranquility. In spite of that, she did not resent the world, but with a gratitude heart, she wrote the masterpiece Three Days to See, in which she described what she would do in the three days. She faced the difficult situation with amazing fortitude. Finally she enjoyed the light of life in darkness and also sowed the seed of kindness in every corner of the world. Above that, lots of modern females know how to live and enjoy a happy life, but few of them know how to face difficulties. In fact, only when modern females know how to extend gratitude to others and praise others sincerely can they truly enjoy their life. For example, one can gain bona fide reward by helping others; one can get happiness by sharing others happiness“There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others eyes my sun, the music in others ears my symphony; the smile on others lips my happiness.” Helen Keller wrote such sentences in her Three days to see to express her gratitude towards this world. When one understands the real implication of gratitude, he or she will know that there are so many persons in this world loving him or her or deserving their love. Then he or she would be the happiest one in the world. To take Scarlet as another example, she hated the war, she even hated others talking about war. However when the war broke out she did not blame or complain but to actively seek ways to survive and live happily. As to this point, she was unlike other noble women who would like to go hungry but not be willing to gain their lives and were ashamed of working as the blacks did. Scarlet knew well that if one wants to be elegant, one must first have the courage to live. She worked as hard as the blacks did on the farmland. She was sniffed at by the past noblewomen but she was full and strong because she had something to do and something to eat. She worked painstakingly but happily. Whats modern women s attitude toward this? Maybe they will agree with or against Scarlet. However, modern women have their own way to deal with their own business. Modern Womens Attitudes Toward material and spiritual lifeA. Modern Women s attitudes toward moneyWomen have their own thoughts and ideal, at this point, women should be independent in every field, especially, in economy, politics, and social status. At the beginning of the 21st century, with the developing of the world s economy, and the betterment of people s material and cultural life, more and more people hold diverse ideas about money. Whats peoples attitude toward spiritual and material life? Is to pursue luxury life or to struggle hard to enhance the cultural level of oneself? As we know, in todays society the competition in all walks of life is becoming more and more fierce ,consequently, some persons gain money unscrupulously. To make money, they betray their flesh and sell their soul. In the commodity society, money is one of the most important and indispensable things. A popular saying goes like this, money is not everything, but you can do nothing without money. In order not to go stray, it is time for women to think of way to be independent in economy, but not to always believe that marrying a rich man means living a happier life. There are many things that money can not give. Nowadays, more and more people realize the facts that money can buy marriage but not family, money can buy bed but not sweet sleep, money can buy flattery but not people s respect, money can buy foods but not appetite, money can buy partner but not friend, money can buy a wife but not love, money can buy music but not feeling. Beyond that, to have a job of one s own is an intelligent choice of woman. No matter how excellent and successful ones husband is, one had better keep a job which can bring her a sum of money and some enjoyment. Furthermore, life can still be wonderful without enough money. Scarlet s second husband had much money, at least, it is enough to content her vanity, and she still went to work even at times when women especially gentle women were not allowed to work nor do business themselves. She was laughed at by others, and she bore other women s gossip and cold eye, such kind of spirit and courage is really worth admiring of modern women. There are a great number of such kinds of person in this world including some disabled person. For an instance, the South African swimmer Natalie du Tiot, 19 years old, had her left leg amputated at the knee after an accident on her scooter in February 2001. She was back to the pool three months later, and in the August 2002 she won golden metals in the 50-meter and 100-meter disabled freestyle events at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, breaking two world records. She was awarded the title of Outstanding Athlete of the Games. Her goal is to enter as an able-bodied swimmer in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She was afraid that others would feel sorry for her, so every time when some one came to see her, she will display her amputated leg so that the relatives had no chance to say, Im sorry. We can imagine what kind of dismay she suffered, but what kind of courage she had to accept the fact. She chose to stand up like common persons, she is sound in spirit and she is one of the bravest women of this century. To face such kind of woman, modern women had no excuse not to be diligent, they should avail themselves of every chance to improve their ability. In the past, women do not have real freedom; she has to do what her husband asked her to do. However, with the development of economy and science as well as the improvement of the law, the social status of women has been improved a lot. From the year when the womens movement broke out to today, women have really won their freedom. They can do what they want to do within the permission of the law, they can go to the society if they like. Occupations and professions, schools, clubs, associations, and governmental positions that were by tradition or law previously reserved for men only are now open to women. Women are found in increasing numbers among lawyers, judges, physicians, and elected officials. In the year 1981 American President Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman, Sandra Day O Connor, to assume office in the Supreme Court. In 1983 the first American women astronaut, Sally Ride, was included in the crew of a space shuttle. Now more and more females are carrying out space shuttle missions. From these examples we know clearly that women are the very master of their own destiny. Whenever women come across difficulties or what kind of unhappiness they meet, they will not sit still and wait for their men to dissolve these difficulties. In Gone with the Wind women were not allowed to act as a businesswoman or work outside. For at that time it would be considered as something which lost their mens face. Yet, the protagonist Scarlet broke the tradition, she managed a timber store and she even managed it better than her husband. Compared with women in the past,