It takes half a month to read "Gone with the Wind", but "The Bird of Thorns" hates not being able to read it in one day, and carefully considering it in the next half a month. Some people say that "Bird of Thorns" is Australia's "Gone with the Wind", in my opinion, the language of "Gone with the Wind" is very straightforward, while "Bird of Thorns" is carefully crafted to embarrass readers. But it is undeniable that they have created a dreamlike homeland, this land, how people's living conditions can give human beings reflection, and the joys and sorrows of characters are also the most common common topics for human beings.
The Bird of Thorns is a story depicted by Colleen McCullough against the backdrop of two wars and social change in Australia in the first half of the 20th century. The novel takes Drogheida, which is unique to Australian regional characteristics, as the main venue, and depicts the different life trajectories of the three generations of the Clarion family.
The Times of London once commented: "This story is ingenious, McCullough describes many of her characters with her characteristic self-confidence, her narrative is not hurried, her grasp of the characters is just right, so that readers can breathe for the fate of the characters from time to time, so that unconsciously achieved a super bestseller."
Many commentators have seen the complex character relationships and the fate of the illegitimate characters in the story, and the story of the development of all the characters is inseparable from the land that holds all emotions - Drogheida. Located in New South Wales, southeastern Australia, Drogheda is part of the town of Kilambo and covers 250,000 acres. The natural scenery here is pristine, the species are diverse and rich, and the environment is quiet.
Each of Droheida's natural landscapes is in contrast to its cultural atmosphere, and its geographical location has had a profound impact on education, religion, sources of information, etc., and these aspects have profoundly affected everyone's living habits, so that everyone who has lived and grown up here has been marked with Drogheida's unique mark.
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Drogheda is a paradise of life, an oasis of life in the desert. In the novel, the author devotes a great deal of space to depicting Drogheda's natural life, for example, to the land of the central mansion, which is like a grand gathering of plants, and the wisteria planted around the old house, planted 50 years ago, is bustling with purple flowers in the spring; and it is still lush in autumn: the house is surrounded by acres of lawns that have been carefully repaired with long-handled sickles, and the lawn is dotted with neat flower beds, and even now they are still blooming with colorful roses, vanilla, and Dahlias and calendulas.
The author portrays it in such detail, trying to present the state of the integration of man and nature in the place, forming a huge narrative background at one time, and the flowers and plants and old buildings as natural and humanistic objects represent the relationship between the past and the present. No matter how much time moves forward, there is always something that stays where it is. This is Drogheida.
She uses a stable ecosystem and a static ideology to show Drogheda's closedness. This kind of closure is the premise of all stories to unfold. If there is no closure, it will not make the characters have a huge sense of powerlessness and tragedy when fighting against their own destiny, because this closedness will snuff out many possibilities of the character's life in this land.
McCullough longed for Drogheda, a paradise place, and as much as she praised the place, she wanted to criticize its backwardness and closure. She is admiring the idyllic style, the vibrant land, the tenacious people, and how traditional it is. Time obviously continues to go, and people grow up and grow old from generation to generation, but here it is like a person who is always old and cannot change any form.
Drogheida is a unique living space, "As everyone knows, Drogheida is a self-contained world, and its isolation from the civilized world is so deep that it is not long before even Kilambo has become only a distant memory for them." "Under the attack of Western industrial civilization, there is also a huge fission here, which breaks the original isolation and brings a trace of freedom and passion to the civilized world.
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Just like a paradise, although life is worry-free, you don't know that the outside world has passed centuries ago. One of Drogheida's closures is the closure of the message – deep inland, vast land and inaccessible, resulting in slow and narrow sources of information.
Books are the only way people here have contact with the outside world: "Since Drogheida is isolated from the world, their only contact with the world is through the wonderful literature, but, like Weehhan, there is neither a library nearby to borrow books, nor a weekly trip to town to mail and newspapers, or to borrow new books from the library shelves." "And this information has long been out of touch with current events, becoming an outdated information, time difference caused by information difference, and information difference will cause misunderstanding."
Father Lavr is one of the few well-informed people here who has worked on this closed place not only in terms of religious causes, but also in terms of culture and economy. So he gained the respect of all and became a man of faith for all.
The books here also stay under the traditional moral moderation of the past, and the content is conservative and single. If one finds a pure kiss in the book, it is considered lucky. In an age when the plot of sexuality would never evoke excitement, the boundaries of which books were for adults and which were for older children were difficult to draw. Regardless of age, these books are suitable for them to read and do not worry about adverse effects on people of any age group.
The choice and acceptance of books is also reflected in their lives, and a strict gender line is drawn between men and women in the family - "Never talk about cattle breeding and mating in front of women, men will never appear before women without getting dressed, and books that may reveal such clues will never appear in Drogheda." "People are naturally mature for men and women, such as Meggie's common sense of girls' first menstruation, and the occlusion of the environment makes her not even have the opportunity to learn relevant knowledge."
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The second manifestation of Drogheida's closedness is the unity of education—the convent is the main place of education. This is the closest school to Drogheida, where most of the content is related to religion, with the nuns teaching students to read and write and religious hymns. However, it is also a small society, and Meggie and Stu are sent here to study, which is new and strange to them. Since their aunt Mary Carson was the richest woman in the region, they received special care in the convent.
The attitude of nuns towards students depends on the family situation of the students, the rich are protected, and the poor students are vulnerable to various punishments. Because of their aunt's wealth and Father Ralph's prestige, Meggie and Stu did not suffer discrimination or injustice at the convent. This is very different from their previous isolation and bullying at the monastery in Weyhan, New Zealand.
For many people like the Cleary family, education is not the only, even important, thing in life. When the child reaches a certain age, he will be dropped out of school and go home to help, and the school is only unattended until he can help, and the school is just a way of taking care of it. Education is an important way to change one's destiny, but for Drogheda people, earning money and perpetuating future generations is more important than education.
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Despite Drogheida's lot of backwardness, closed information, and religious repression of love marriages, it is an eternal home for those who grew up here. Meggie and Luke's love is not blessed by religion, but still full of gratitude for this place, they left here after marriage, but they have a strong longing for this place, a strong desire to return to Drogheida, when Meggie returned here again, sighed: Drogheida is home, this is her heart, always be.
The same is true of Meggie's two younger brothers, who, when they return from the battlefield of bullets, find Drogheda a charm that cannot be described by outsiders. It is the Garden of Eden, which cannot be touched by the fires of the two wars, and it is the place where people yearn for a peaceful and happy life.
Many people's lives start here, stretching to Sydney, to Western society. Because of the convenience of transportation and the change of thinking, people here are eager to go out all the time.
Justine is the third generation of the Cleary family, an ideal image of conflicting boundaries, breaking through the shackles of religion and possessing a soul independent of freedom. She believes that religion is "a completely deceptive thing" and aspires to be an actor, despite her family's opposition to develop her career in the larger world. And she also became a fire of life that remained with Drogheda's relatives, as Meggie wrote to her: "You will not be happy to settle here far away, and what you have to do is not only an unnecessary sacrifice, but a senseless sacrifice... So stay where you belong and be a good citizen of your world. "
The door of the new world is open to the inhabitants of Drogheida, and the new civilization attracts the people here to leave, but in McCullough's pen, Drogheida will always be the pure land of civilization that can be freely imagined, and the place where those who have left can always keep their original intentions. No matter how the outside world is invaded and destroyed by industrial civilization, it can still maintain its original appearance, although backward but harmonious.
Text/Angelica
Graph/Network