Morrison's Black Feminist Consciousness In The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison, the first black woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, has established her fame not only in America but also on the global scene. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, plays an important role in the study of Morrison's black feminist consciousness. However, critics in China show inadequate concern to this novel. In the United States, there have been few attempts to apply black feminism to The Bluest Eye. By adopting the theory of black feminism, the thesis attempts to analyze the theme of the text through close reading, hoping to offer a new angle of studying the novel.Different from white feminism, black feminism emphasizes the multiple oppressions imposed on black women. Revealing the damages caused by multiple oppressions and providing the solutions to the problem are the major concerns of black feminists. This paper holds that by revealing the loss of black women's identities which are caused by racial, sexual and class oppressions and by providing the solutions to the identity crisis, Morrison successfully exhibits her strong sense of black feminist consciousness in The Bluest Eye.Since the loss of identity is the result of the multiple oppressions, so portraying how black women lose their identities is one of the recurring themes in black feminist literary works. Black women in The Bluest Eye, first of all, refuse to acknowledge their black images. Then they deny the emotional contact with black families and black community. They are totally lost in the thick-spun white-male fog after they deny their fighting rights.How to redefine black women's identities becomes another concern of black feminists. According to Morrison, loving one's blacks self, loving one's blackfamily, and loving one's black culture are the essential ways to solve the identity crisis. In doing so, black women can retain their authentic identities.From the above analysis, the author comes to the conclusion in the end of the paper: Morrison's black feminist consciousness is fully embodied in The Bluest Eye by displaying the loss of black women's identities and the solutions to the identity crisis.