ABSTRACT:A Little Princess is one of the most famous works written by American writer Burnett. Based on the late nineteenth and early twentieth century's background, in vivid language suitable for all ages, the novella was written about the school life of Sara, a girl with a captain father. Sara is warm-hearted. She treats everyone equally and provided them with her love and care. Even in the most tragic period of her life, Sara still kept her kind heart. In the end, she escaped from her misfortune. Sara's character traits were helpful examples in establishing children's view of right and wrong. Through interpreting the text, this paper attempts to analyze the implication of different social structures, and introduce the state of an ideal society in the author's mind. Papers will be divided into three parts: the first part will focus on analyzing Sara's family background and how this affected her personality. In the second part, through analyzing Sara's school lives, the kind of society structures that the school implied will be exposed. The third part will be about the relationship between the large family and Sara, and show what kind of society structure the large family stands for. And finally the paper will come to the conclusion that the latter kind of social structure would be the ideal one in the author's mind.
Key Words: A Little Princess, Sara, social implications
摘要:《小公主》是美国女作家伯纳特的经典作品。这部小说以十九世纪末二十世纪初一个贵族女子学校为背景，用生动到老少皆宜的语言讲述了有着上校父亲的小女孩塞拉的多舛命运。即便是在承受人生最悲惨的境遇的时候，塞拉也一直在用一颗充满爱和关怀的心，平等地对待他人，尊重他人，最终摆脱了不幸。这部小说的情节及塞拉的性格特点在帮助儿童建立是非观念上有着很积极的作用。本文试图通过对作品的解读，分析文中对不同社会状态的暗示，揭示作者心中的理想社会状态。论文将分为三个部分，第一部分主要分析塞拉的家庭背景以及这些背景在她性格特点上所起的作用，第二部分通过解读塞拉在学校时候的情节，分析“学校”所代表的社会状态；第三部分通过对塞拉与大家族的联系分析大家族所代表的社会状态，并通过分析塞拉的特点等得出结论：大家族这种社会状态是作者心中的理想。
关键词：小公主，塞拉，社会象征意义
