Black Women’s Self-realization

Toni Morrison, a bright star in American Literature, often concerns much with the fate of black people in her works, especially the humiliated and oppressed black women. In Morrison’s novels, she subverts the traditional fixed images of black women, portraying a series of female characters in their pursuit of selfhood and self-realization. Sula, her second novel, mainly discusses black women’s struggle for selfhood and self-realization under the racist and sexist oppression. This thesis employs black feminist approach, analyzing the self-realization of three black female figures with vivid characters. Besides, this paper reveals the hardness and pain of black women’s self-realization. In addition, Morrison depicts a group of tenacious black female characters in Sula. Eva, a brave black woman, continuously fights against the fate and she passively searches for selfhood under the cruel reality. As a new black female figure, Sula seeks selfhood and achieves self-realization alone. She keeps her short rebellious trip alone due to her extreme rebellious character. In contrast to Sula, Nel is a rational rebel. She goes out of the maze after experiencing a zigzag process of self-realization. Finally, Nel finds a rational road for her development. Through the analysis of this novel, the thesis aims to present Morrison’s new ideas of how black women can attain self-realization:she emphasizes that black people should absorb nutrient from the black tradition and culture, gaining courage and presenting the black cultural and black artistic features in the white mainstream society.