An Analysis of the Struggle Against Fate Reflected in
The Thorn Birds
I. Introduction
The Thorn Birds written by Colleen McCullough was published in 1977 and was regarded as Gone with the Wind in Australia. Colleen McCullough enjoys worldwide reputation, and her novels are bestsellers in a multitude of languages. Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. As a neurophysiologist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, then she worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. Her writing career began with the publication of Tim, followed by The Thorn Birds, a record-breaking international bestseller. The author of nine other novels, McCullough had also written lyrics for musical theater. She lived on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific with her husband, Ric Robinson. Though she earned a reputation as a romance writer with this novel, McCullough had produced a diverse body of fiction in several genres, notably the psychological novel, An Indecent Obsession (1981), A Creed for the Third Millennium (1985), and an ambitious series of historical novels set in ancient Rome beginning with The First Man in Rome (1990).
The story of The Thorn Birds starts with the Cleary family. It follows the lives, loves and deaths of the big family through three generations from 1915 to 1965. It is a story of frustrated love in many forms, and the main causes for such miserable story come from the religious background, socio-historical background and the moral principle in the land. In the rugged Australian Outback, the Clearys lived through joy and sadness, bitter defeat and magnificent triumphdriven by their dreams, sustained by remarkable strength of character and torn by dark passions, violence and a scandalous family legacy of forbidden love. The Cleary family, brought from New Zealand to Australia to run their Aunt Mary Carsons ranch. The story centred on their daughter, Maggie, and her love for the familys priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart. Maggie tries to forget Ralph by marrying dashing stockman Luke ONeill, but she and Ralph were soon reunited, with tragic consequences for them both.
The Thorn Birds once was a best-seller, and it had been widely prevailing not only because of its touching love stories but also its exhibition of the human nature. The novel had moved quite a lot of people. Sancho Mahle comments on the novel: What I found amazing about this beautifully crafted love story is McCulloughs exquisite writing style and her remarkable talent for this genre. The touching stories also have strong lessons about life, says Roger J. Buffington, this is truly a great and classic novel. I do not bestow these oft-overused adjectives lightly...
The story also had been shot to TV series and movie and widely welcomed by people all over the world. There was the TV review in New York Times to show how popular the story was: Miss McCulloughs novel skillfully combined history with the kind of soaring romance. It is not great literature. But neither is Margaret Mitchells Gone with the Wind.
Two mothers in the book have the similar mistake; they hold tightly to their babies, but cannot hold it forever because they do not follow the original way of life but try to change the determined order. It is said that fate is doomed to happen and can not be changed by human beings. From The Thorn Birds we see a great epic family saga; it tells the lives, loves and deaths of three generations. Many people like to comment on three heroines in the book or the love story between Maggie and the priest. But what the mother Fee and her daughter Maggie have gone through are most impressive for the fatalism reflected in the two womens life stories. The following parts aim to give a detailed analysis on it.
II. A Brief Review of Fatalism
In The Thorn Birds, the lives of the main characters are filled with love and torched by their similarly unalterable destinies, both tragic and beautiful, and mostly resulting in despair. Fatalism can be detected in two heroines life experiences, which is a supernatural belief system holds that the natural world causes events in human life and no matter what you do, the same things will happen to you. The next part will focus on the fatalism in some details.
A. Philosophical Concept of Fatalism
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine holding that all events are predetermined in advance for all time and human beings are powerless to change them.
It is the view of life which says all actions are controlled by the nature or by fate which is a great impersonal, primitive force. It is independent of human will and superior to any good created by man. Nature would never be generous, and mankinds fighting and miseries will be endless. In other words, the comprehension of fatalism points to a belief that although there are acute conflicts, once victim always victimthats the law, and will never change whatever people do.
B. The Changing Phases of Fatalism
Fate, personified by the Greeks under the name of Moira, signified in the ancient world the unseen power that rules over human destiny. In classical thought fate was believed to be superior to the gods, since even they were unable to defy its all-encompassing power. And in Oriental religion, fate is a dark, sinister power related to the tragic vision of life.
Hellenistic concept of fate is substituted by Christianitythe doctrine of divine providence. Providence is the direction and support of a loving God, which makes life ultimately bearable; fate is the rule of contingency that casts a pall over all human striving.
Present fatalism was among the ancient Stoics, and it pervades much of the thought of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. Modern philosophers who have entertained ideas akin to fate are Oswald Spengler, Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, and Arthur Schopenhauer.
C. The Theme of Fatalism in Western Literary Works
In western world, there are many writers having been influenced by fatalism, such as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and William Shakespeare. In Dickens novel Great Expectations, we can track the thoughts of fatalism. In Thomas Hardys famous work, Tess of the DUrbervilles, we can also perceive Hardys philosophy on fatalism:
Mankind is controlled by the rule of mysterious fate that brings misfortune into human life, and the immanent will predetermine everything in the universe. Although there is a humorous and attractive side to life, the dominating mood in his novels is always tragic.
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