Abstract

The famous short story The Loons is written by a Canadian woman writer Margret Laurence. It tells of an Indian Métis girl Piquette’s short and miserable life. This paper, by analyzing in detail the tragedy of the loons which respectively symbolizes the miserable fate on the part of the marginalized groups in society, the female, as well as the nature, aims to disclose the writer’s value orientation underlying in the story: the harmony between man and man as well as the rapport between man and nature should be developed in human society.

Key words: the loons, symbol, tragedy, marginalized groups, female

摘 要

《潜水鸟》是加拿大女作家玛格丽特•劳伦斯的著名短篇小说。该小说主要讲述了一个梅蒂斯女孩儿皮格特短暂而悲惨的一生。本文通过详细分析潜水鸟的悲剧所分别象征的社会边缘群体和女性的悲惨命运以及自然的悲惨现状来展示作者在故事背后所潜藏的价值取向，即：人类社会中人与人之间、人与自然之间应该发展成为亲密和谐的关系。

关键词：潜水鸟；象征；悲剧；边缘群体；女性

1.  Introduction
Among contemporary female writers, Margaret Lawrence is a particularly outstanding one who rose abruptly in the Canadian Renaissance period and enjoyed the reputation as the “literature godmother” and “Canadian Tolstoy” . She has twice won the Governor General of Canada Prize for Literature; no doubt, she is one of Canada's most distinguished writers. Margaret Lawrence spent two years and five years respectively in Somalia and Ghana. All the living experiences in Africa provided a wealth of materials for Lawrence’s literary creation. She created lots of works in her lifetime, including novels, essays and children's stories, and she became publicly known for her Manawaka series of novels. Her writing is concise, lean and implicit, usually using appropriate symbols to display the theme of fighting for survival, freedom and independence. In addition, Lawrence’s works usually demonstrate a grand sense of historical mission and give readers a vivid sense of the times and realism. Although the life pictures she shows to readers are very elegant, it contains far-reaching and profound implications. The best-known Manawaka series of novels always tell the stories about women’s unique experiences and feelings aiming to reveal the various problems faced by women and to show strong gender awareness and concern for the survival and development of different ethnic areas and humanity as a whole. And The Loons is a short story selected from the well-known Manawaka series of novels.