Proposed Title for Dissertation：  

An Analysis of Three Heroines' Images in Prodigal Summer from the Perspective of Feminist Criticism

I. Background  

Prodigal Summer was published in November 2000. The story takes place in  the south of the United States consists of three parallel stories. The novel, and it Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver, a famous contemporary American woman writer, explores the fate of women from the perspective of feminism. Kingsolver has endowed women with amazing abilities to complete their self-salvation. Through the analysis of this work, Kingsolver made up three extraordinary heroines and endowed them with strength, wisdom and kindness.

This paper attempts to analyze the famous American contemporary female writer Barbara Kingsolver's masterpiece Prodigal Summer from the perspective of Feminist criticism. The author expresses the current situation of women being oppressed and exploited to analyze the character image, plot setting and structural arrangement. And the author hopes to encourage the harmonious relationship between men and women, nature and human.

II. Research Questions and Its Significance

This dissertation aims at finding answers to the following questions:

1. How to analyze three heroines' images in the Prodigal Summer from the perspective of feminist criticism?

2. What are the implied reasons for the character formation of three heroines in Prodigal Summer?

This article aims to appreciate the novel Prodigal Summer from the perspective of feminist criticism by exploring the relationship among men, women and nature in the novel. The three heroines in the novel are very different from the weak and submissive female images required under the patriarchal system.