摘  要

  作家考琳•麦卡洛所著的小说《荆棘鸟》是一部富有魅力的小说。其中的人物形象与现实中的人物原形极为一致，反映了当时社会现实。小说揭示了这样一个道理：真正的爱和一切美好的东西是需要以难以想象的代价去换取的。本文分析小说中的三位女性人物，故事中三位女性人物来自处于不同时代的三代人中，她们对自己想要追寻的幸福有不同的需求和理解，同时她们都为追寻自己的幸福付出了不同的代价，得到了不同程度的幸福。但于这不同之中，她们又体现了女性勇于追求，无畏牺牲的共同精神。在论文中，应用了一些佛学的观点来分析三位女性的代价与幸福，通过讨论小说中三位女性人物为追寻“荆棘”所付出的代价以及表现出的女性的坚强勇敢，执著追求的女性精神，来分析该三位女性人物的形象，反映女性思想的发展进步，引起现代女性对爱情，女性主义和女性自我实现的关注。

关键词:  荆棘鸟    女性主义     佛学    代价

Abstract

The Thorn Birds was written by Colleen McCullough .This is a work of fiction and any resemblance between the characters in this book and real persons is coincidental .It is a distinguished work , which reflect the reality of the society. The story tells us a truth that true love and every nice thing need incredible cost to get. This thesis analyzes the heroines of three generations in the story. They reflect difference in the resistance to the unfair treatment the society imposed on them and their women brilliance. But they all show the identical spirit of persistence and intrepidress. This thesis will analyze the cost and happiness of three heroines by some Buddhist view. This thesis analyzes the three female images by discussing the cost that women paid for ideals; it attempts to interpret women's existence, their destiny and the significance of their struggles and emancipation in the light of feminist studies.

Key Words:  Thorn bird   Feminism   Buddhist    Cost

1. Introduction
1.1 Writing background of this paper

The 20th century witnessed the emergence of many outstanding female writers. Colleen McCullough is a famous Australian writer. Her typical work The Thorn Birds unfolds women's experiences and struggles before, during and after the Second World War for three generation. And the heroine of this book is unusual at that time.
This story takes place in the outback of Australia. It was a family saga involving three generations of the Clearys. Paddy Cleary, with his wife Fee and children, lived a hard life in New Zealand. He has a rich sister Mary Cason, a childless widow, in Australia. She sends for Paddy to bring his family to come to live and work for her on ‘Drogheda’. So she asks Ralph, a young priest and friend, to go and pick them up from the train station.