Alternative Yell:a Study In Identity Construction Of Female Characters In The Bluest Eye&the Color Purple

In spite of the claims made in The Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, the ideas of "patriarchal orientation" and "racial discrimination", penetrating various walks of social life in America, remain to loom large in American democracy and its social economy. Afro-American female development is more remarkable among all the issues. As Afro-American women writers, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker have faithfully represented the initiation history and the striving path of Afro-American women, whose depression, confusion and exploration, as a result of their submission to the white’s ideology of hegemonic and oppressive culture or value, has received overall description in their works. Among all their works The Bluest Eye and The Color Purple respectively stand out as the representatives. Both works, through the representation of the misery fate of Afro-American women, lay bare their difficult living situation under double oppression of racial discrimination and gender bias and their identification dilemma with absence of their identity. At the same time, they both put forward constructive strategies for Afro-American women in terms of how to dispel the gloomy shadow of racial and gender oppression to construct one sound, positive racial and cultural identification.The present paper analyzes and interprets the two above-mentioned novels in the theoretical framework of identity and identity construction. In the mainstream society characterized by cultural differences, we could find the efforts and explorations made by the Afro-American women authors in order to strategically and collectively construct their identity as the Afro-Americans. Meanwhile, we have a further understanding of the unique literary value and rich historical and cultural significance of Afro-American literature.Except "the Preface" and "the Conclusion", the paper consists of three chapters, the first of which deals with the comprehensive pedigree of Afro-American female characters who are categorized into "alienated women","suspended women","conscious women" and "liberated women" in accordance with these characters. A study in these women heroines makes us discover that the inter-generation of the African women’s growth history is broken. The following chapter focuses upon Afro-American women characters’ anxiety and confusion because of the absence of discourse rights, education, and love in the dominant white culture in American society. The last chapter taking identity construction as a starting point tries to artistically construct the female identity from three aspects, that is, gender, culture and race. The Conclusion discusses the proper attitude the minorities should choose to take in order to construct harmonious existence. At the same time, it indicates the complexity, openness, difficulty and universality of identity construction.