| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系碩博士班 === 94 === Abstract
Silver Sister, Lillian Ng’s first novel, records how an illiteracy and ordinary woman, Silver Sister, coming from an unknown countryside, turns into an extraordinary woman in virtue of her joining in a sisterhood and becoming a “comb-up.”
This thesis aims to explore women’s living experiences in terms of Marx’s theory of values. I read Silver Sister as a collective record of women’s stories. Silver Sister’s identity of being a “comb-up” enables her to lead a different life from other women and makes her become the forerunner of women’s independence at that time. Though she made progress of her rights and autonomy by being a “comb-up,” I will investigate whether her successful experience can take as other women’s role model or not. By looking into women’s labor power, sexuality and motherhood in Silver Sister, I will discuss where women’s dilemmas come from in view of economic values. In first chapter, I briefly introduce Marx’s theory of values. The second chapter starts to examine the relationship of women’s labour power in the family and in the labour market. The third chapter deals with exchange and trade of female sexuality. In chapter IV, I attempts to re-evaluate motherhood. In the concluding chapter, after the examining three major dimensions in women’s lives, Silver Sister’s life story shows that women’s liberty and independence should be reached with continuous efforts instead of being stopped by establishment of a role model. And economic superiority is more the prerequisite to liberty and autonomy than the ultimate end.
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