An Analysis Of Male And Female Characters In The Bluest Eye, Song Of Solomon, And Beloved From The Perspective Of Post-structuralism

As a black woman writer, Toni Morrison has portrayed several images of both male and female characters. Of them, some are pathetic; some are brave; some are weak; some are strong. Since Toni's Morrison's winning the Nobel Prize, an increasing number of people have made comments on the male and female characters under Toni Morrison's pen and have tried to analyze them according to their understanding.After reading through hundreds of articles and essays about the Toni Morrison's works, we could find that there are a lot of people holding negative attitude toward male characters and positive attitude toward female characters in Toni Morrison's works. Then, we may come across with a question:Is this the real intention of Toni Morrison? Is this what Toni Morrison is trying to tell us? Through analyzing the male and female images of Toni Morrison's works, we could find that the reason why people are holding such attitudes toward male and female characters is because of their having binary oppositions about men and women. Those characteristics and features that are related to women are taken for granted as good; and those characteristics and features that are related to men are considered as evil.To prove that most people are analyzing the male and female characters in a wrong way, the writer firstly proves that there are binary oppositions in people's mind and in their analyzing texts. Then, in order to prove that the binary oppositions are unstable and fragile, the writer uses theory and examples to subvert the original binary oppositions. Through the subverting of these binary oppositions, the writer proves that conclusions made on the basis of these fragile and unstable binary oppositions are not reliable and can not be true.