This thesis elaborates Mary, a Marginal Man in Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing from three points of view-Mary’s drifting, Mary’s Constraints and Fears, Mary’s Fleeing and Awakening. All of these novels transmit the rise and fall of deep culture and the sense of vicissitudes of life. From the race of blacks and whites to the free female under the colonial background in 1950s and 60s and then from the spiritual alienation under culture shock in 1970s and 80s to the difficult living conditions of the middle-aged and the aged in her later works, all of these characters are the unique microcosm of the Marginal Man created by means of blending Lessing’s own experiences and emotional imagery. Most of characters she created in her works are living in the cracks of changeable era and cultural transformation. Reviewing from Doris Lessing’s works, Marginal Man is the main clue in her literary creation.

Doris Lessing, one of the most popular writers of British literature in the second half of the twentieth century, is famous for her changeable styles of works and different perspectives all over the world.

Doris lessing the grass is singing