Abstract: Joyce Carol Oates is a famous American writer. Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang is one of her representative works. This novel describes the growth of a group of teenage girls living in the society where ethical environment is chaotic. This paper analyzes the causes of the birth and destruction of the girl gang. The girl gang in this novel is formed because of family’s lack of ethics, teachers’ lack of ethic morality and chaotic social ethical environment. In the meanwhile, it is destructed by loss of ethic consciousness and conflicts between social ethics and personal choice. There is no doubt that the girls in the girl gang are the weak in that time and they become sacrifices at last. This thesis concludes that a society which lacks ethical order will cause thousands of victims like the girls in the girl gang to appear, and it is important to observe ethical principles.

Key words: Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang; girl gang; birth and destruction; ethics

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要：

1. Introduction.1

1.1 Introduction to Joyce Carol Oates and Foxfire

1.2 Literature Review

2. Ethical Interpretation of the Causes of the Birth of the Girl Gang3

2.1 Family’s Lack of Ethics

2.2 Teachers’ Lack of Ethic Morality 

2.3 Chaotic Social Ethical Environment

3. Ethical Interpretation of the Causes of the Destruction of the Girl Gang.5

3.1 Loss of Ethic Consciousness

3.2 Conflicts between Social Ethics and Personal Choice

4. Conclusion  .8

Bibliography.9

Acknowledgements.10