An Analysis Of The Reconstruction Of The Black’s Cultural Identity In Roots From The Perspective Of Post-colonialism

Alex Haley, one of the most excellent African-American writers, is famous for his great work---Roots. Roots is a historical novel that purports to trace the African American ancestry of its author.The author established the theme on the idea that "one can find everything if one finds the root". The most precious thing for a man is to know who he is and where he is from. He hopes that the blacks will obtain dignity if they find their root; the white people will understand the black people if they find their root; the people living in the whole world will live harmoniously if all the people try to find their root.Since its publication, many scholars have studied it from different points of view. For example, some focus on the cultural values of the novel. Some mainly discuss it from the theme of racial discrimination. Others illustrate ecocritical comment of it and so on. From the perspective of Post-Colonial culture system, by way of text interpretation, this paper analyses how the black people reconstruct their cultural identity and get respect from the whole society and find their true "root".This paper is divided into four parts. The first part gives an introduction to the book Roots and its author, and literature review. The second part introduces the theory of Post-Colonialism culture study, and its main representatives. The third part is the main body, which focuses on blacks’cultural heritage and development under slavery. Blacks’ identification with their traditional culture is a very important factor in their reconstruction of their cultural identity. The history of African-Americans is the history of struggle. Confronted with two different cultures, they don’t want to lose either African identity or American identity. The last part is conclusion. Based on the analysis, this paper draws two conclusions. One is the reconstruction of the African-Americans identity is a lasting process, and it can not be realized in a short period of time. The other is culture is the soul of a nation. Wherever and whenever blacks are, blacks can not deny their traditional culture and their own cultural identity.