1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

Purpose and Significance of the Study Colleen McCullough is an Australian contemporary female writer, who pays much attention to the development of women in her various works. She gains considerable fame because of her masterpiece The Thorn Birds, which is regarded as one of the must-read classic for women. The Thorn Birds introduces the life experiences and emotional courses of three generations in Cleary family from 1915 to 1965. The different experiences and fates of the female characters in the novel become a true reflection of Australian women#8217;s liberation and growth. Being reputed as the Gone with the Wind of Australia, The Thorn Birds touches thousands of people all over the world since its first publication in 1977. Among the three female characters, Meggie seems more attractive and the love story between her and Ralph is more moving and more depressive. In this novel, Meggie#8217;s growth processes show distinct stages, at which she yearns for different needs and accordingly she makes hard struggle to satisfy these needs. With the perspective of Maslow#8217;s Hierarchy of Needs, Meggie#8217;s story shall be interpreted in another way, for we can clearly see Meggie#8217;s needs, desires, pursuits, struggles and success. Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 #8211; June 8, 1970) is an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. Maslow used the terms "physiological," "safety," "belonging and love," or "social needs" "esteem," and "self-actualization" to describe the pattern through which human motivations generally move. According to the different stages of Meggie#8217;s growth and Maslow's hierarchy of needs, this thesis tries to make clear the complex emotional journey between Meggie and Ralph, to analyze Meggie#8217;s physiological changes, to explore her growing up from losing to retrieving herself. With the satisfactions of needs of different levels, Meggie experiences various changes and pursues different targets, during which her self-consciousness gradually forms. Using Maslow's hierarchy of needs, this thesis will show a completely new image of Meggie and interpret her female growth process, along with development of her self-consciousness, in order to exploit the ideological connotation of the novel. Literature Review As an outstanding work concerning love and fate, The Thorn Birds attracted attention of the academy among the world for a long time. A large amount of research was conducted on it, and the previous studies can be divided into the following three categories. The first category is about its religious elements. In this novel, the male character Ralph is a catholic priest who is not allowed to marry, placing him in a moral dilemma when he falls in love with Meggie. Quite a few scholars analyze this novel from The Bible prototype perspective, linking the characters with the figures in The Bible, among whom Wan Pei does a comprehensive research. The second category is the theme and image in this novel, such as the plot, sex, concept, etc. To make the research more intensive and thorough, the scholars tend to compare The Thorn Birds with other novel which has similar theme or character. The thesis written by Hong Changchun aims to illustrate the similarities and differences between The Thorn Birds and Hawthorne#8217;s masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. The title itself serves as a profound image. Some scholars attempt to link the thorn birds with the characters, trying to find out their underlying personalities. The last category is feminism, concerning the development of the female characters. This is the most popular perspectives, for the novel was published in 1977 when feminist movement enjoyed increasing popularity. Cui Xiaoxi attempts to explore the hard journey of women growth aiming to interpret this novel in the light of feminism. Zou Liyuan, who from Shanghai International Studies University, explores the social reasons of female characters#8217; fates in The Thorn Birds from the feminist perspective. In her eyes, the three generations express varying degrees of rebellion to the oppression because of the gradual awaken of the female consciousness. As the interdisciplinary studies have received much attention, some scholars try to apply psychological theories to literature analysis. With Freud psychoanalysis, Guo Xuemei discusses Meggie#8217;s psychological changes through the analysis of competition between Meggie#8217;s id, ego and superego. In Guo#8217;s thesis, she once mentions the love and belonging needs of Maslow#8217;s needs theory to explain why Meggie is so attached to Ralph, providing inspiration for the topic of this thesis. From the above analysis, one can see that previous studies enjoy diverse perspectives and achieve comprehensive and profound research results. However, few studies are from the perspective of psychology, and in these psychological studies, most focus on plots or characters, in-depth exploration is rare. Based on the previous studies of The Thorn Birds, this thesis discovers that it is feasible to apply psychological theory on the analysis of the text and Meggie#8217;s personal development.

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

Methods and Procedures of the Study Based on the existing research results, this thesis uses the method of combining theoretical interpretation with textual close reading, and applies Maslow's hierarchy of needs to deeply study and explore the development of the Meggie's self-consciousness. This thesis consists of five parts. The first part is an introduction. A brief introduction about Colleen McCullough and her masterpiece, The Thorn Birds, is given in this part. This part also includes literature review of The Thorn Birds, where summaries of previous studies will be made. The second part is theoretical foundation. This part introduces the relative information of Maslow and his hierarchy of needs theory. The third part analyzes Meggie#8217;s D-needs. Maslow defines psychological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs and esteem needs as Deficiency needs or D-needs. This part talks about the satisfactions of Meggie#8217;s D-needs in the relationship with Ralph, explaining why Meggie is so dependent on Ralph for so many years. The fourth part refers to the highest needs in Maslow#8217;s hierarchy of needs---self-actualization，also named Being needs or B-needs, which is used to analyze how Meggie reaches her self-actualization. After leaving Ralph, Meggie experiences divorce, gestation and raising child alone. During this period, Meggie gradually gets rid of dependence of males. With the awakening of self-consciousness and realization of her own value, Meggie fights against obstacles and realizes her final success. The fifth part aims to reflect on the processes of Meggie#8217;s growth from losing to retrieving herself, which provides us with more a thorough comprehension about the awakening of feminist consciousness. The last part is conclusion. It summarizes main ideas of this thesis, showing the signification and limitations of the study. Conclusion Colleen McCullough#8217;s masterpiece The Thorn Birds enjoys highly reputation, making great contributions to Australian literature. The author creates vivid and pictorial image of the characters, leaving us lavish literature wealth will be worthy of our exploration and discovery. As for Abraham Maslow, his theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, some of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans. The hierarchy remains a very popular framework in sociology research, management training and secondary, higher psychology instruction and literature analysis. Applying theoretical interpretation and textual close reading, this thesis aims to analyze The Thorn Birds and draw conclusion on the formation and development of female self-consciousness. With in-depth exploration of the character, this thesis shows a completely new image of Meggie, which is conducive to understand the whole story, so as to provide enlightenment for female development and social gender equality